Poignant, touching, and fresh, Moonglass is a triumph of a first novel. Anna is only seven when her mother walks out into the surf and drowns. Now at age sixteen, her father is uprooting Anna to go live in the small beach town of Crystal Cove, California. Anna is not looking forward to the move -- she doesn't want to make new friends or live in a new place.

Things start to look up when she sees the beachfront cottage they get to live in. The next day she meets a motormouth girl named Ashley who assures her that they will be BFF's and she meets Tyler, a hot lifeguard. Maybe this won't be such a bad place after all.

Sadly, Anna keeps remembering the night her mother walked into the ocean -- maybe it's because they are now living in the little town where her parents met and fell in love. What was it that her mother was looking for in the surf? Why are some of the cottages abandoned? Who is the strange man who crawls the beach every day? Why is Joy so interested in telling Anna about her mother?

Part romance, part mystery, but all mesmerizing, Moonglass is a sure winner. Highly recommended ages 12-up. Some skinny-dipping but no graphic details, no sex.

Recommended by Pamela Thompson, MLIS, Library Media Specialist, Texas

visit her ya novels blog at http://booksbypamelathompson.blogspot.com/

*now a featured blog on the Texas Library Association's homepage at http://www.txla.org/TLA-blog