Some Stories Are Not Seen
Can Lucy save the sea stars before it’s too late?
Twelve-year-old budding scientist Lucy Lavender loves exploring. After Dad dies, Mom pieces jobs together and struggles to provide a home for Lucy. When Mom is offered a job managing a set of vacation cottages in Sea Rock Cove, the small coastal town where Dad grew up, Lucy hopes this is her chance to have a home and pursue her dream of becoming a marine biologist. On Lucy’s first day at her new school, she is excited to take a field trip to Sea Rock and see Dad’s beloved sea stars. When Lucy learns the sea stars have a wasting disease and are dying, she is devastated and becomes determined to save them. But as Lucy gets involved with the people of Sea Rock Cove, she learns there is a lot more beneath the surface of the town than just the sea stars at low tide.
Some Stories Are Not Seen Facebook Page
This story is inspired by the Haystack Rock Awareness Program in Cannon Beach. To learn more about the program please visit their website here. or the Haystack Rock Awareness Program Facebook Page
The Haystack Rock Awareness Program offers field trips to Haystack Rock–both in person and virtual. To learn more and find curriculum study guides about Haystack Rock visit the website here.
Sea Star Wasting Syndrome (SSWS) is the largest marine disease outbreak ever documented in a non-commercial species. It occurred from 2013-2014 and stretched from Alaska to Baja, California. SSWS affected over twenty species. The ochre sea stars, found in the Oregon Coast intertidal zones, have not recovered, although there are some areas which are showing an improvement. The sunflower sea stars have become non-existent. Marine biologists are working to find answers, but the cause of sea star wasting syndrome and the outbreak are still unknown. For more information visit the Sea Star Wasting MARINe site here
The Coast Weekend wrote a great article about Some Stories Are Not Seen and can be read here.
Awards/Honors
Some Stories Are Not Seen was selected for the Multnomah County Library (Portland, Oregon) Writer’s Project Collection. June 2021
