Wide Eye

Wide Eye is a creature who may or may not inhabit Wide Eye Lake, a forest summer tourist resort somewhere in the United States – something like the Loch Ness Monster but on a much smaller scale, perhaps a less disturbing cousin of the ghostly Tailypo of the woods of Appalachia. Ten-year-old Meridian is a believer in Wide Eye. She visits the lake each summer to help her grandfather Frank, who runs a ramshackle museum dedicated to the maybe, maybe not monster. Meridian looks forward to her time with her grandfather but she gradually realises that this summer will be different. As she sets off with her mother for the long car trip, she overhears an argument between her parents about whether she was now old enough to be told something important.  And, once settled in at the museum, she is visited by her least favourite two boys from school, who also happen to be spending the summer at the lake. It’s a time for her own eyes to be opened, perhaps to the reality of the monster, to its connection to a mystery within her own family, and certainly to what might lie behind the brainless bravado of at least one of those teenage boys. Meridian is an attractive character, the levels of holiday mystery are appealing, and Jennifer Liss tells her story with clarity, humour and empathy.