Across the Pond by Joy McCullough

A young teen who’s lost her footing at home must reestablish herself in a castle “Across the Pond.”

Across the Pond by Joy McCullough. Atheneum, 2021, 276 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 10-14

Who wouldn’t want to live in a Scottish castle? For Callie, it’s unbelievable but true: during their student days, her parents had rented a cottage on the grounds owned by Lady Philippa Whittington-Spence. The owner was a widow at the time, with no close kin, and had formed such a close relationship with the American couple she left them her estate, castle included. It’s a far cry from a small apartment in San Diego, but Callie’s more than ready to move, especially after a devastating incident that cost her all her American friendships.

But her fantasy about being the cool American girl at her new public school is dashed before she even tries it out. Callie talks her parents into homeschooling instead, but that in itself isn’t going to make her feel at home. Her predicament echoes Philippa’s, revealed in journal entries from 1939. Philippa was also uprooted from her childhood home during the London blitz, and now must find herself in a strange land. Both girls, in different centuries, discover the same anchor: birdwatching. Or “twitching,” as the Scots would have it.

The theme about finding oneself in new circumstances is a tried-and-true one for middle-graders, here given an exotic setting. (The author drew on her own experience of living in a Scottish castle as a child.) Like all early teens, Callie is a work in progress, with the inevitable baggage of peer issues. But she also has a loving and supportive family and by the novel’s end she’s learning to stand on her own.

Overall Rating: 3.75 (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4

Also at Redeemed Reader

• Review: Roll, by Darcy Miller, incorporates the unique qualities of roller pigeons to tell the story of a dispossessed boy. Birds also play a large part in One Came Home, a 2015 Newbery honor book.
• Review: If you’ve ever considered birdwatching as a hobby, Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard is the book for you.
• Review: A Scottish castle forms the dramatic background of Time Sight, a time-travel novel that rated a starred review from us.

We are participants in the Amazon LLC affiliate program; purchases you make through affiliate links like the one below may earn us a commission. Read more here.