Name: Surfside Girls 1
ISBN: 9781603094115

Kim Dwinell

Things are getting weird in Surfside. Lately, Samantha’s best friend Jade explodes into fits of giggles whenever she sees a boy, and it’s throwing a wrench into the kick-back summer of surfing and hanging out that Sam had planned. But after swimming through a secret underwater cave, Sam starts to… see things. Like ghosts. And pirates. And maybe something even scarier! Can she and Jade get to the bottom of this mystery in time to save their town?

The Secret of Danger Point

Surfside Girls 1

Maggie Gordon

The Secret of Danger Point is an okay book for younger readers. The main plot is about a girl who needs to save a beautiful area of town because she is directed to do so by ghosts. There's also some silliness about boys, an evil mayor, and general weirdness. It feels a bit too normal for the Scooby Doo vibe it seems to be going for, and the slice-of-life parts felt forced. Cute though.

Kim Tyo-Dickerson

The perfect summer read, with a local mystery that needs to be solved, tween friendship, beaches, ghosts, and an ecofiction mission. 

Twelve-year-old friends Sammy and Jade are ready to spend their summer at the beach, junior lifeguarding, surfing, skateboarding, and helping out at Sammy's dad's beachside hamburger stand, The Burger Dude. But changes are underway. Sammy is disappointed that Jade is acting silly around cute boys and wonders if they are growing apart. The girls quickly re-establish their connection through sport, including kayaking, skating and surfing. All seems back to normal and a fun, regular summer ready to be had.

Then while the girls are out paddling around, Sammy notices sparkling lights underwater near an area where there are plans to build a new resort, and dives to investigate. What she finds is a secret cave that has stairs that lead to the surface and a hidden garden where an old hermit, who recently died, used to live. There Sammy learns that she can see and communicate with ghosts from her community's past, reluctantly discovering that Jade isn't the only one growing up and finding new interests, as what she learns about the garden, its past inhabitants, and the current, highly secret plans for building a new luxury tourist hotel on the land, has the potential disrupt and change everything about her life. The question is, will Sammy answer the call to do something about it? 

It will take some serious sleuthing, historical reading and research with Jade, and a belief in herself to solve the mystery and bring her community together to protect the beach and its environmental health. Highly recommended mystery series opener for readers ages 8 and up who like sports, quiet ghost stories, a little romance, community service, and big friendship.

Samantha Seeman

I don't remember where I saw this, or how I heard about it, but somehow it ended up on my radar and quickly in my hands. Just from the cover I got such warm beachy vibes which is what I was looking for at the moment. As it turns out, the story follows two girls who live in this small beach town called Surfside. In the wake of a big, expensive hotel/resort going up, Samantha discovers a secret underwater cave that leads to a literal ghost town in the same location as the proposed hotel. They (the ghosts) have determined that Sam is now their keeper, and responsible for saving them from being displaced by the hotel. Sam, with the help of her friend Jade must figure out a number of things surrounding this sketchy hotel deal and end up at the center of an FBI investigation. I wasn't expecting a mystery (or a sequel) or ghosts, but it was cute and I would consider maybe continuing with the series. It is aimed at a younger age bracket though with Sam not understanding her friend Jade being giggly around boys but then experiencing her first crush. All in all, it wasn't a waste of time, but it wasn't something to write home over either.

Surfside Girls 1 The Secret of Danger Point

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