Telling the Sea by Pauline Fisk

"Nona thought what a place this was turning out to be, with its mad campers, cats as big as dogs, spying--maybe even dying--boys, weird Miss Parry next door. What a place, with its ocean that was as real as a person you could tell your secrets to, where she--mad as the rest of them--tried to drown people for no good cause, and came home blue, worse than numb, shaking all over.

   "Why ever did Mum think we'd be safe down here?"

The day they ran away was Nona's birthday. They needed a new home--and Mum took them to the village by the sea where she had spent her happiest childhood days. But the place of safety turns to danger, and the beguiling sea becomes a trap before winter's end.

PAULINE FISK'S new book, set on the rocky coast of west Wales, is a story of winter darkness and sea light. It is tragedy and comedy acted out before a living, breathing sea by an unforgettable cast: Nona and Owen, locked in battle with each other and their families; pouting, sulky Sharon; Harry Llewellyn and his poisonous, poached rabbit stews; Griselda, weathering the stormy winter in her tent; lonely Mrs Lark, the minister's wife--even King Offa, the marauding warrior cat with the flame-red hair.

Telling the Sea is especially recommended for readers of eleven and over.