Between Sea and Sky by Nicola Penfold

In a near future where a series of environmental disasters has left much of the country underwater, Pearl lives on a floating oyster farm with her father and younger sister, Clover. Following her mum’s death several years earlier, Pearl refuses to set foot on land, believing her illness was caused by the poisons in the ground. Meanwhile, Clover dreams of school, friends and a normal life.

Then Nat comes to spend the summer at the sea farm while his scientist mum conducts some experiments. Leaving behind the mainland, with its strict rules and regulations, he brings with him a secret. But when the sisters promise to keep his secret safe, little do they realize that they may be risking everything…

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Be aware that this story starts in the middle and the backstory is only filled in in bits and pieces here and there.

Some unspecified time in the future, Earth is slowly recovering from a cataclysm of some kind. An authoritarian state has taken hold, controlling everyone with a strict series of laws. One of the laws state that things will ease up when there is evidence of pollinators - butterflies - returning to the wild, but the central authorities have been supressing evidence for years. Three kids, each of them breaking the laws in their own ways, are the only hope for their community to win their freedom.

I loved the writing in this book. It's lyrical, gentle, and absolutely lovely. The character were great, I loved how they were so much braver than they realised, and how deeply they cared about things. The story moved at a great pace as well, I was never bored or unimpressed. 

This isn't so much an ecological warning as it is a story about how to be brave when you don't think you can be, and how to listen to each other and work together. A sequence during a storm had me on the edge of my seat watching to see what was going to happen. 

This is a great adventure story and I really enjoyed it. I'd have liked to have known the back story earlier, but it worked out in the end, so I'm not too bothered by it. I think this will do well.   

Between Sea and Sky publishes on the 8th July, 2021. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.