Fast Five Fiction: Lighthouses

It's Friday and time for Fast Five Fiction! Each week I share five fiction books: new books, notable books, books around a common theme. Our summer reading theme this year is Oceans of Possibilities and we've got an ocean of great books for readers of all ages. This we've been talking about water safety and lighthouses are a huge part of helping keep boats safe so today I'm sharing books about lighthouses. 

Click the title to be directed to the book in our catalog. Book descriptions are from Goodreads.

The Lighthouse Family by Cynthia Rylant

Life with just the sea can be lonely. Just ask Pandora or Seabold. They've lived most of their lives with the sea, and they're quite used to being alone. Or they were. But one extraordinary day, the same sea that brought Pandora and Seabold together gives them the ingredients for an adventure that neither of them had considered before--an adventure called "family.

The Puffin Keeper by Michael Morpurgo

As a child, Allen is saved from a nautical disaster by Benjamin Postlethwaite, a solitary lighthouse keeper. Years later, Allen returns to the lighthouse, and the two nurse an injured young puffin back to health. When Allen is called up to fight in World War Two, he's not sure he'll see his mother or Benjamin again, but his fond memories of his time at the lighthouse keep him going, even through prison camp.

Allen and Ben's enduring friendship over the years is the basis for this story about friendship, art, war and an incredibly adorable puffin.

The Boxcar Children: Lighthouse Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner

The Aldens take a trip to the New England coast and get to stay in a lighthouse! But strange things happen after it gets dark--an unknown woman is seen walking around, and Watch wakes up growling late at night. Can the Boxcar Children shed light on a seaside mystery?

Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall

Watch the days and seasons pass as the wind blows, the fog rolls in, and icebergs drift by. Outside, there is water all around. Inside, the daily life of a lighthouse keeper and his family unfolds as the keeper boils water for tea, lights the lamp's wick, and writes every detail in his logbook.

Step back in time and through the door of this iconic lighthouse into a cozy dollhouse-like interior with the extraordinary award-winning artist Sophie Blackall.

Of Salt and Shore by Annet Schaap

Every evening Lampie, the lighthouse keeper's daughter, must light a lantern to warn ships away from the rocks, but one stormy night disaster strikes. The lantern is not lit, a ship is wrecked, and someone must pay.

To work off her debt, Lampie is banished to the Admiral's lonely house, where a monster is rumored to live. The terrors inside the house aren't quite what she thought they would be--they are even stranger. After Lampie saves the life of the neglected, deformed son of the admiral, a boy she calls Fish, they form a close bond. Soon they are pulled into a fairytale adventure swimming with mermaids, pirates, and misfits. Lampie will discover the courage to fight for friendship, knowledge, and the freedom to be different.