Let me start by saying it’s definitely a really good book! I learned a lot about sea life from it and I really enjoyed how pure and honest it was written. I did find it kind of boring though and probably won’t reread.

So wonderfully well-written. The voice of Miles, the 13-year-old marine-life-expert narrator was spot on. The details in what he says and thinks are even wrong in exactly the right ways. For example, he sees someone practicing "slow-motion karate" and we know both that it's tai chi and that he wouldn't know it's tai chi. The romantic/sexual yearning subplot was unnecessary (and I probably appreciated it far less because without it, this would be a fantastic book to read to my girl) and anemic, though it's inclusion did create some of the tension between Miles as naif and Miles as mature young man. This is especially fascinating as someone who's familiar with the Puget Sound bays and (more common) creatures in Miles's world. And it's delightful to be in the company of an expert who has the expert trait I most value: he explains his area of expertise in an engaging way that acknowledges his audience's intelligence without expecting us to know all the jargon and details that he knows. Very much to Miles' credit and of course to the author's.