AustLit

'Jodie Jackson is a twelve-year-old girl, who lives with her father above their boat shed in Serpentine Bay, Sydney. She attends her mother's old school and has made a new friend, Sarah Chan, whose mother is a famous TV chef. Sarah has panic attacks and anxiety, and Jodie encourages her to talk to her parents.

'Jodie works at her grandmother's New Age shop on Saturdays, and is saving for a school excursion to Fraser Island.

'When the school Mother/Daughter lunch is planned, Jodie asks her Nan, because her mother died the previous year. Alicia, the class bully, constantly harasses Jodie about her family situation, her home life and even her schoolwork.'   (Publication summary)

'The slap of spray on her face, the exhilaration of the boat cutting through waves, the call of the sea birds and the summer sun warming her skin...

'Through all the challenges - starting a new school and making new friends, and a father who is absorbed in his work, missing her mother - Jodie finds solace in sailing. But will the ocean turn against her?

'Can she save the lighthouse from development? And why are there dead penguins floating in the water? Who is the girl in the photo that she finds hidden under the stairs? And, most importantly, where is her mother?

'Jodie's voyage of discovery takes her to a place she never dreamed she'd be ... But how will she convince her father that it is real? ' (Publication summary)