THE TRUTH ACCORDING TO BLUE

If 13-year-old Blue can find treasure that went down in a ship centuries ago, maybe she can expand her identity.

Family lore says Blue’s “great-times-twelve grandparents” arrived in America as 12-year-olds—one from Amsterdam, one from Java (their story is related in Cast Off, 2015)—and left treasure underwater when their ship sank off Long Island. Blue can’t wait to find it. But in Sag Harbor, “regular families” like Blue’s face wealthy summer vacationers—including a movie star who insists that Blue entertain his rude, spoiled daughter. He dangles a $500,000 diabetes research donation that Blue, “the poster child (literally)” of a diabetes organization, can’t ignore. Luckily, the girls slowly make friends and undertake a grumpy, terrifying, thrilling treasure hunt employing methods hazardous and illegal. Blue’s first-person voice is funny and immediate in her desperation to find the treasure, which connects her to her beloved late grandfather and which, she hopes, will distinguish her from being merely “Diabetes Girl.” Copious nitty-gritty details of blood-sugar management—testing, counting, taking insulin—accurately show diabetes as a frustrating, dangerous, ongoing challenge. Readers will swoon for Blue’s cherished service dog, Otis, who helps keep her safe. Unfortunately, the breezy portrayal of people feeding and touching Otis without permission misleads about (critical) service-dog etiquette. White-presenting Blue’s mixed white and (extremely attenuated) Javanese identity is acknowledged only through the ethnicity of her older relatives.

Exciting treasure hunt, refreshingly unromanticized chronic illness—a good combo.