Ginika is sent to live with her grandparents at a boring seaside town. She doesn’t want to go or leave her friends. But once she gets there she comes across a mysterious sea boy called Peri and suddenly it doesn’t always seem so bad.

This was a really nice childrens read. I liked how there was a good mix of fantasy but also modern real life. I loved how friendship came across really well in this book and that everyone is different and should be accepted. This was my first book by this author but I would like to read more.

Simply gorgeous…Summer was supposed to be Ginika's time for fun, friends and fairs. But instead she's been sent to live at the dead-end seaside boarding house her grandparents run. Even though her parents say it’s just for a little while, she can’t help feeling abandoned and heartbroken to be missing out on everything she loves back home.

And then she meets Peri. He leaps and dives through the water like a dolphin and he talks like a burst of bubbles. He’s not exactly a mermaid, but he’s definitely something Ginika's never seen before.

His family is far away too, but unlike Ginika, he loves his independence. As Ginika shows Peri her world, she starts to feel free as well. They don’t need anyone else when they’ve got each other. But then the lights and noise of the human world start to change Peri. And when things spin out of control, Ginika must be the bravest she's ever been to face her fears and make the hardest decision of her life.

Join Ginika and Peri as they dive beneath the waves and walk the lands that will take them into each other's worlds on an adventure they will never forget and a life-changing friendship.
Recommend to all ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wow! We have The Lightning Catcher at school but I haven't yet read it. This came up on NetGalley and the cover and blurb appealed to me.I wasn't disappointed! The characters are well written and are easily identifiable in life.
Ginika lives in London with her parents near her friends and school. But something has gone wrong - her family have to move out of their home. Mum and Dad are going to live in the campervan, but they are going to send Ginika to her grandparents house, miles away by the sea. Ginika is unhappy, she doesn't think her parents are telling her everything. She is cross at being left with her grandparents. Loving them is one thing but being left here till, well she doesn't know when she will retur to London, her parents were very vague. At the beach she is laying on her stomach when Grandpa asks her to come back to the house for tea. She says she will and turns back to the surf but...that isn't a wave...it's a boy! A sea boy, but not a mermaid. Ginika finds out from her Grandfather that there are legends of sea people in their coastline. Ginika doesn't tell him why she is asking. Ginika though is encouraged by her grandma to become friends with Scarlet but is Scarlet nice? Ginika is not sure. Scarlet is determined though to find out where Ginika keeps disappearing too. Ginika does everything she can get away by herself. The sea boy, Peri, returns and he is interested in the town, the lights and the noise. Eventually Ginika realises that she needs help, Peri because of his determination to visit the town and see the lights is in trouble. How can they help him? A fabulous story of friendship, caring and family issues that can happen to us all.

There is so much going on in this unusual and compelling book.

Ginika reluctantly moves to the seaside to live with her grandparents, after her parents are forced to give up their London rental and move into their battered camper van. While she’s there, she encounters a mysterious sea-dwelling boy, who she introduces to land life with dangerous consequences.

I love the representation of financial difficulty, which is all too relevant right now. Ginika’s parents fell victim to loan sharks, and the tension this creates — especially between her parents — is brilliantly written. It’s perfectly pitched for the age group. Ginika only partly understands what her parents are going through, but the exclusion and confusion of not having it explained to her is more painful and worrying than even the truth would be. The descriptions of her anxiety as she struggles with everything are all too real.

Enough for a brilliant book in itself! BUT… then there’s Peri — one of a race of people adapted to stay hidden and live in the sea. There is a real imaginative beauty to the descriptions of Peri… original and believable and fascinating. I love how Ginika draws on her knowledge of other ocean-dwelling creatures to imagine how he may have evolved. Their adventures together, along with the tween friends she makes along the way, provide a perfect foil to the emotional turmoil and there is plenty of joy and fun to propel you happily though the story.

It's Summer and Ginika was looking forward to spending time with her best friend Alisha and participate in their dance show. But the family is having a bad time - they've been evicted of Ginika's beloved flat near the railway and her parents don't explain fully why. Worst of all, she's being sent away to her grandparents' boarding house, far from Mum and Dad and her friends.
Then she meets Peri. Ginika is sure that he is one of the sea people her grandfather tells stories about. He is perfectly at home in the water, and so fast! And talks a strange language, with clicks, rolled letters you shouldn't be able to roll and multiple tones.
Ginika is fascinated by Peri's world and Peri is fascinated by Ginika's. Ginika wants to show Peris the lights and noise of the human world and things go well at first - they both get dizzy on freedom and fun. Until the human world proves too much for Peri and he starts getting very very poorly and in danger of being discovered. Ginika has to face her fear of water to save Peri and reunite him with his family.

This story sweeps you up far and high as sure as the biggest wave in a storm. 'The Storm Swimmer' is told form Ginika's point of view and you feel her grief for what her family has lost, her worry for what's to come, her feelings of abandonment and being left out as sure as if it was happening to you. And the world and character building of the sea people is fascinating and remarkably researched in a way that stimulates both the reader's imagination and mind (asking questions, like Ginika, about how different creatures live, how things work, how to help someone whose life we don't totally understand). I absolutely loved to read the Author's Note at the end, explaining about her research and why she made the choices she did for Peri's physical attributes or how he lives.
A heart and mind opening story <3

This was a strong, well-written and enjoyable MG read, offering both an engaging story and much food for thought. Not only does this book offer a story but there are many aspects that prove perfect conversation starters too. Weze addresses some important themes and ideas around families, their complexities and the struggles adults can face with external pressures (e.g. financial). Yet, the story doesn't become bogged down by these or try to handle them in a way unsuitable for the target demographic, but actually pitches the ideas in an accessible manner for the middle grade audience. Whether as an at-home read or story to explore as a school group, this book is bursting with points of discussion that are particularly relevant in the current world.

Throughout, Weze gauges and achieves the perfect balance of plot and character development, juggling smaller and larger plot points whilst crafting a cast of realistic and relatable characters. It's not quite the world we know, either, and yet Weze is clever in making us feel right at home with the unusual elements whilst still keeping things moving and making the magic believable.

When Ginika’s parents have some financial trouble and lose their home, they think the best solution is for her to live with her grandparents over the summer while they get back in their feet. The only trouble is that her grandparents live by the sea in Cumbria, which feels a world away from Ginika’s life in central London.

When Ginika arrives in Cumbria, she fights against the changes in her life but is soon intrigued by a meeting with a strange sea person. She finds herself on the beach at every opportunity, hoping to catch another glimpse. As Ginika begins a tentative friendship with the creature from the sea, she initially pushes away all the people around her, until the realises that she needs their help if she is to save him.

Although I wasn’t totally sold on the premise of the story, I found myself strangely hooked by it. I was more invested in the relationships Ginika had with her parents, grandparents and the other children in the story than with Peri. A great story dealing with debt, loan sharks and sudden homelessness.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. The children were entranced by this beautiful book and enjoyed it as much as I did. It focuses on family and the love of friends. It started many conversations about how family life can be difficult and how dire financial straights can affect families. The children hear about this every day at every turn on the news and this book was just the right book at the right time. The conversations then led onto having friends who were a bit different from them and how diversity is such a good thing. This is a magical book but the conversations it starts are even more important. Loved it !

Engaging, fast paced and perfectly sleek writing to draw in the reader. I thoroughly enjoyed this story.

I am always in awe of anyone who can craft a credible, engaging story – especially one which shows the most amazing of imaginations of work. Creating original characters, fantastical creatures and believable new worlds are beyond my brain and when I find myself fully immersed in a story which I cannot put down – one which begs to be read and shared – the pleasure that that title brings cannot be beaten.

So it was when I picked up the author’s first novel – The Lightning Catcher – when it was published last year. That story, revolving around child mental health and a strange creature responsible for creating strange weather phenomena, was one I absolutely loved so when I saw that this new title was on Net Galley, I jumped at the chance to read and review it. Again fresh and original in its telling, this is another fabulous story which will leave its mark on those who read it and which will seal Clare Weze’s name as one to continue to look out for.

A family picnic is usually a fun affair but for Ginika, whose parents are sending her to stay with her grandparents, the meal is anything but. Having been forced from their accommodation and now living in a campervan, her mother and father explain again why this combined with the lack of employment elsewhere means that she needs to visit her grandparents’ boarding house for the summer, leaving Ginika convinced they are not telling her the whole truth.

Two days later, Ginika finds herself lying on the beach close to the boarding house – not sunbathing with a relaxing read but hiding from her family and trying to get on top of her emotions by watching the waves. After her grandfather comes to find her to tell her she needs to come back, she promises to do so very soon and once alone again spots a boy within the water, who appears to almost be a part of it. Staring at him, their eyes meet and they exchange smiles before he dives below the surface and disappears again.

When Grandpa tells her stories of the sea people said to inhabit the coastal waters close by, Ginika is fascinated and determines to track down the boy, waiting patiently for him to reappear. Thrilled when he does, she starts to try to communicate with him and the two of them soon start to become friends. But Ginika has not reckoned on local girl Scarlett’s curiosity driving her to find out what Ginika is up to. As Ginika tries to show the boy what life on land is like, can she keep his presence a secret from Scarlett and what will happen to him if she can’t?

At the heart of this story is the importance of love and friendship. Ginika understands the reasons her parents give her to explain why they want her to stay at her grandparents’ home but she is old enough to recognise that they are being economical with the truth, causing her to worry enormously about what other reasons lie behind their actions and feel rejected.

While she loves her grandparents dearly, being forced to part from her mum and dad, her best friend and the familiarity of where she has been brought up makes her feel overwhelmingly lonely and uncared for. In the boy, Peri, she finds an individual who has no connection to her family whatsoever and who is as interested in her as she is in him, driving her to focus her attentions on this new relationship, without really considering fully how it might impact on either or them until things go wrong and she needs to take swift and drastic action to put them right.

This is a title that will be a huge hit with confident readers in Year 5 upwards and would make a great read aloud in upper KS2. Exciting, tense at times and with the possibility of opening up all sorts of conversations about relationships and the current economic crisis affecting many families, I found it hard to put down and I know many other readers will feel the same way. Publishing on January 19th 2023, my enormous thanks – as always – go to publisher Bloomsbury and to Net Galley for my advance, virtual read.