Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood by Robert Beatty (Mavelous Middle Grade Monday)

Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood

Robert Beatty, Author

Disney Hyperion, Fiction, Oct. 8, 2024

Pages: 320

Suitable for ages: 10+

Themes:  Foster children, Floods, Friendship, Nature, North Carolina, Time travel

Publisher Synopsis:

Thirteen-year-old Sylvia Doe has lived at the Highground Home for Children nearly all her life. Whenever the administrators try to place her with a foster family, she runs away–back to Mason, Highground’s caretaker and her best friend. The only place she feels like she belongs is with him and the horses he has taught her to love.  

When a powerful hurricane changes the course of a river and storms cause the remote mountain valley where she lives to flood, Sylvia begins to encounter strange and wondrous things floating down the river. Glittering gemstones and wild animals that don’t belong–everything’s out of place. Then she spots an unconscious boy floating in the water.

As she drags him onto the shore and their adventure together begins, Sylvia wonders who he is and where he came from. And why does she feel such a strong connection to this mysterious boy?

Robert Beatty, a master at telling atmospheric tales of mystery and suspense set in the natural world, has crafted another ingenious, unputdownable story.

My thoughts:

This is my first encounter with Robert Beatty’s ecological mystery-adventure stories. Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood is an exhilarating and suspenseful novel that is a summer must read. I am eager to check-out his other books.  He is a masterful storyteller and he surprises readers to the very end with his engaging plot, and beautiful prose.  I love the touch of magical realism in the story. I couldn’t help but think how relevant his story is to North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. I have family living in Boone, NC. 

The story begins with Sylvia running away from her new foster home and back to Highground’s because of the pending storm. There is a restlessness about her. She wants to help Mason protect her beloved therapy horses.  The never ending storm hits the valley and community hard causing massive destruction.  So there is a lot of action from the beginning.  But Beatty cleverly keeps drawing readers deep into the story with unexplainable occurrences. Sylvia spots a Jaguar and her cub –not native to North Carolina — floating down the river on a log. Then large precious gemstones appear along the water’s edge, as well as rare birds that are extinct.  

Sylvia  is smart, curious, determined, brave and unrelenting in her love of nature. They will enjoy how she documents the strange appearances of exotic animals and birds in her “field guide” books during the storm starting with the sight of the Sandhill cranes migrating at night, the wolves,  and the extinct Carolina Parakeets that appear. She deligently sketches each bird and animal and records information about the iridescent blue glow on the river, the unurusal rock formations and the weather.  The illustrations for the “field guides” were illustrated by Beatty’s wife, Jennifer. They really are an important to the story.  

When she saves a boy drowning in the river, readers will begin to sense that something is different about Jorna Grant. He says he lives upstream in a town called Sapphire Cove — unknown to Sylvia — but he’s perplexed at how different the forest is and how small the trees are where Sylvia lives.  Jorna wants to go home. Sylvia feels a connection to this mysterious boy and wants to help him. This is where their big journey begins and I won’t spoil it for readers.  

Make sure you read the Epilogue and The Author’s Note. You learn more about Beatty’s inspiration for this story. 

Robert Beatty is the author of the New York Times #1 bestselling Serafina series and Willa of the Wood dulogy. His books are taught in over a thoursand classrooms nationwide and have been translated into 20 languages. Robert draws inspiration from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife, Jennifer, who created the interior drawings for this book. Visit him online at http://www.RobertBeattyBooks.com. 

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*Reviewed from a library book.