SECRETS AT SPARHAWK POINT

On the shores of Lake Superior in Sparhawk Point, Michigan, in 1943, four kids hatch a secret scheme to keep their worlds from falling apart.

Twelve-year-old Beatrice and 11-year-old Ingrid Ahlstrom are the Swedish American daughters of a quietly discouraged minister who dreams of having a greater impact. He passed up a mission trip to China that would have separated him from his family for months, and now the girls fear he’s angling to serve as a military chaplain in the Pacific. Nearby live two brothers: Twelve-year-old Jack and 11-year-old Alex Robicheaux, Ojibwe boys whose language and legends are woven throughout the story along with the Ahlstroms’ Swedish cultural heritage. The boys’ widowed mother’s rental cottages are struggling, and the family may have to leave Sparhawk Point and live with family in Detroit. Inspired by massive interest in the Loch Ness Monster and hoping to help both their families by attracting curious visitors to their town, the sibling pairs secretly conspire to spread rumors of a lake monster drawn from Ojibwe legends of Mishi-Biizhiw. Ingrid’s dream of becoming a newspaperwoman like her Aunt Ebba adds warmth, while details of daily life (like rationing and a scrap metal drive) keep the wartime stakes grounded. Biblical references arise naturally from the Ahlstroms’ faith. When the scheme unravels, the parents’ responses aren’t overly harsh; honest reckoning leads to a hard conversation—the kind where everyone ends up a little wiser.

A wholesome, warmhearted, faith-inflected adventure.