Storm Child is an easy read and a compelling story that deals with themes of friendship, dislocation, and the challenges of decision making and dealing with parental shortcomings.

Maya has a close group of friends and lives for surfing, so she is not keen when her parents propose a move to a tropical paradise for a new start. There, she has difficulty making friends, and in continuing her existing friendships long distance.

Eventually, she gets to know Kalani, a girl of a similar age in her new location. But their friendship is a bumpy ride - not least because Kalani is dealing with her own challenges.

Maya is a likeable and immensely relatable protagonist and this book will definitely appeal to the target age group. I really enjoyed reading it!

Children’s family adventure story. Maya’s family are pressed financially. So they set off to a tropical island where prospects seem better. Maya’s first love is surfboarding and the sea. As Maya tries to settle in her new home she finds new friends and danger because the sea is not forgiving. Neither is Maya really at having pulled from the life and friends she knew. But given time and perspective, families can sometimes work out what matters the most. Thank you to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

I.have no idea why we have
not read this talented authors books before now. We have enjoyed this book S0 much that we have already bought her other books to add to our bookshelf.They all important topics for the children to read about . such well written books.

Been a fan of the author for quite a while already. There is something just irresistible in her writing -- something gripping, relatable and beautiful without being poetic as in using a lot of flowery literary vocabulary. There is a briskness in her writing that is refreshing like a summer breeze.

This story takes a bit of time to build up but it has a message about over-tourism that is a relevant to the current generation. It is also a topic that I would love to discuss with my students. I will definitely use this in my classes in the future.

One of the reasons I was interested in this book was the blurb. A thought-provoking novel about globalization? And on top of that, it’s a children’s book. What narrative is the author trying to convey, I wondered?

For Maya, living in Penrose is her whole life. She has supportive friends and the freedom to pursue her passion for surfing. Everything seems perfect until an incident involving her father’s boat turns her life upside down. With the mounting costs of living in Penrose, Maya’s parents decide to move across the world to a tropical country.

Maya struggles to understand her parents' decision. Although she’s pessimistic about the move, she convinces herself that they’re doing what’s best for her. Still, adjusting to a new life without her friends, while her parents are busy, leaves Maya feeling lonely and homesick.

The book is quite fast-paced, so it doesn’t take long to finish. Being a children’s or middle-grade novel, Ele Fountain delivers the story in a straightforward style, avoiding overly detailed descriptions that might bog down young readers.

What surprised me was Maya’s growth throughout the story. She starts as a hot-headed, overly critical, and somewhat insensitive girl, but by the end, she learns to voice her opinions and empathize with others’ struggles.

I also appreciated how the author subtly addressed developmentalist issues. It’s refreshing to see Maya realize that not every improvement—like the resort development in the story—has the same positive impact on everyone’s lives.

However, I felt the backstory of Kalani and Maya’s relationship with her Penrose friends could have been explored further. It makes me wonder if there are more stories to tell about them.

This book provides a safe space for those grieving the loss of a dream, and floundering around in the aftermath of their loss ✨

after a family accident, Mayas family is forced to make difficult financial decisions that lead to their moving thousands of miles away. She struggles with the loss of her friendships over the distance, and the instability their sudden move has on their family. As she is forced to reckon with her new situation, she is thrust into a new friendship that helps her, and her family, realize that bad luck and bad choices aren’t the same, and they have the choice of persevering even when things go wrong.

Why I rated it a four
✅dialogue was hard to follow between characters, I was confused multiple times
✅I never learned Mayas age, this seems important
✅ Maya herself was not a very compelling main character.
✅the locations of Penrose and Paradise were vague, I would have preferred a location to associate and create mental images of!
✅ I wanted more from her relationship with Tom, are they interested in each other? If he is so kind and close to her why did she never call him once when her family was gone, even though his gift to her was a major reason her family returned home?

Positive Elements:

✅ Maya is perceptive of the small changes she sees in her parents, their unease and the consequences of fheir rash decision making
✅ I liked Kalani as a character, that she is more reserved and hard to get to know but a truly deep and loyal heart
✅ I loved the beach growing up and still do, Maya and Kalani both have a connection to the sea and cherish its details beautifully.
✅ A larger theme of protecting your homeland, especially the effects of tourism on local ecology, and how it is driving our indigenous peoples.
✅ compelling storyline of how grief makes us make poor decisions sometimes as we are floundering around in the aftermath.

A move to an island paradise on the other side of the world promises a new start, and a more prosperous life, for Maya and her parents after an accident ends her father's fishing business. But separated from her surfing friends and her beloved beach back home, and with her parents working even longer hours to make ends meet, Maya struggles to see the positives to this new lifestyle until she strikes up a tentative friendship with Kalani, a local girl. Despite some initial distrust, the girls soon realise that they have more in common than they think, especially when disaster threatens to strike a second time.

This is a tenderly written middle-grade story about friendship, family, and coping with change that also sensitively introduces larger environmental issues such as globalisation and sustainability. Highly recommended.

This did everything that it was supposed to in the children’s fiction novel, it does a great job in telling children about the globalization and was engaged with how well it told that story. Ele Fountain wrote this well and had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed getting to know the characters.

Storm Child is a medium paced middle grade novel that explores timely themes like climate change, This is the first Ele Fountain novel and I will definitely check out her other titles and recommend her to my middle grade students. The story was very relatable as well as engaging and suspenseful in places. She represents the thoughts and concerns of this age group very well.
I would recommend this book to 10-14 year olds and it would make a great addition to public, school and personal libraries a like.

Thank you Net Galley, Ele Fountain and Pushkin Press for the opportunity to preview Storm Child. The opinions shared are my own.

Storm Child is expected to be released Feb. 11, 2025.

Ele Fountain is one of the top authors for the 10-14 year old reading group - her stories are always original and gripping - tapping into events that affects many and highlighting very pertinent issues.

Maya and her parents live by the sea - Maya has a close group of friends and loves to surf. But following a storm and her father losing his precious boat , the family are forced to consider where they live especially as a developer wants their land for a sea side resort

The family decide to move to another part of the world with the dream that life will be better ...but will it?

Maya struggles to make friends and her parents work tirelessly to make ends meet; eventually she befriends a local girl- Kalani . Kalani views Maya with some scepticism - is she yet another tourist moving to her island forcing locals to lose their identity? Together the two girls confront danger and ultimately recognise they have similar concerns that impact upon them..

The message in this novel is more subtle than previous books- yes, it is about family and surviving in difficult times but this new book looks at a changing world where tourism is eroding the traditions and lives of local people all for the gratification of visitors and those with money.

A great read that will further open awareness awareness of global changes to its audience- a good upper key stage 2 class read for discussion too

loved kalani and maya soo much....tough as it is to get accustomed to a new place...maya did just that....i was sad and anxious for maya's dad before the move but then maya had adventures that boggled my mind and made that less trivial in a way ...5 stars!!