Splash is super afraid to speak in front of groups. Her brain freezes, she begins to shake, and she can’t breathe. Is something wrong with her?
And now Donovan is sick. He has a high temperature and has lost his voice. But he has to teach a group of kids about the ocean in just four days. His twin sister, Cassie, needs Splash to step up and help out. But can she overcome her fears?
Splash learns that she is not the only person afraid of public speaking. Many famous people, including presidents and actors, have faced this fear. With the help of her friends, she learns ways to prepare and calm herself for events. It isn’t easy, and surprises happen along the way that make it harder.
And it’s not just Donovan’s temperature that is rising. The crew of the Bubble gets an urgent request for help when an ocean heat wave hits Bodega Bay. What is causing it? What is the heat doing to the animals that live in the ocean?
Along the way, Splash and her friends go kayak-camping, learn about bioluminescence, dig for clams to make clam chowder, and much more.
Splash is super afraid to speak in front of groups. Her brain freezes, she begins to shake, and she can’t breathe. Is something wrong with her?
And now Donovan is sick. He has a high temperature and has lost his voice. But he has to teach a group of kids about the ocean in just four days. His twin sister, Cassie, needs Splash to step up and help out. But can she overcome her fears?
Splash learns that she is not the only person afraid of public speaking. Many famous people, including presidents and actors, have faced this fear. With the help of her friends, she learns ways to prepare and calm herself for events. It isn’t easy, and surprises happen along the way that make it harder.
And it’s not just Donovan’s temperature that is rising. The crew of the Bubble gets an urgent request for help when an ocean heat wave hits Bodega Bay. What is causing it? What is the heat doing to the animals that live in the ocean?
Along the way, Splash and her friends go kayak-camping, learn about bioluminescence, dig for clams to make clam chowder, and much more.
Th-thump, th-thump, th-thump, th-thump.
My hands trembled and my palms itched with sweat. I wiped them on my pants.
I licked my lips, but my mouth was dry like cardboard.
I tried to take a deep breath—but my lungs wouldn’t open. I needed air! I began to pant, taking shallow mouthfuls of air.
I looked up and focused on what was in front of me. Lots of eyes looking at me expecting me to… say something?
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. What was I going to say? What did I just say? I couldn’t remember.
Silence.
My knees began to shake. Uh-oh. I was starting to get queasy. I felt like throwing up.
My eyes darted around the room like a wild cat looking for an escape.
More silence.
I had to get out of here, but I couldn’t seem to move. I had to escape!
“I think what Splash was just about to say is that the baby seal we rescued is right here at the Marine Mammal Center!” Squeals of delight came from the kids as they all turned their heads back toward Cassie.
I slumped down into my chair and again tried to breathe.
“And in just a few minutes, after we finish our tide pool game, we’re going to get to visit it.” She smiled super big at the kids.
What just happened? I had never been so scared in my life—even when jumping into the ocean to save Cassie. I looked around the room. Donovan and Cassie had moved on to the tide pool game and the little kids were acting like nothing weird had taken place at all. Hadn’t they just seen me freeze up?
“Anemone! Right,” Donovan said and began to describe the anemone he was showing on the screen at the front of the class.
My shakes began to lessen. I wiped my hands again on my pants. I took a deep breath and felt my lungs finally fill with air. My muscles began to relax. My stomach calmed. No throwing up today.
Donovan gave me a quick concerned look as Cassie took over with the next tide pool critter. Okay, he had noticed something was not right. I wasn’t in la-la land. Something did happen. Just now. Right here.
Where am I? I am at the Marine Mammal Center, a place for baby seals, sea lions, and elephant seals that have been injured or separated from their moms.
How did I get here? Floated on the ocean, of course!
Cassie and Donovan are my super cool new friends. We all live on the Bubble—a floating research vessel traveling up the west coast of California in the Pacific Ocean.
My name is Samantha Wellesley, but my new friends call me Splash. That was the name that my baby sister Kizzy gave me after I jumped into the ocean to rescue Cassie. My mom and dad are ocean scientists. They are working with Cassie and Donovan’s parents to do research to help save the oceans and the animals living in the oceans. So we motor in our floating Bubble up the coast taking samples of ocean water and marine life and working with other researchers on land. It’s a lot of work. But it matters and I want to help.
So here we are at the Center. Cassie and Donovan are teaching a class on tide pools to a group of kids. That is one of their jobs. They are ambassadors for the Bubble. As we stop at different harbors, they get to help kids learn about the ocean. I was supposed to be helping them today. But when it got to be my turn, the words just wouldn’t come out and I froze. That’s never happened to me in such a big way before. I felt like I was watching an avalanche come straight toward me and couldn’t move my feet. Yikes!
“Splash, are you okay?” Donovan asked as I was still trying to figure out what just happened to me.
I looked up. Oh. The class was over, and the kids were walking outside. Donovan knelt beside me, looking concerned.
“Yeah, I think so.” I said with a shaky voice. My eyes misted up. Gosh, this was kind of embarrassing in front of Donovan. “My brain just froze up as I was talking to the kids. I’ve never had that happen before.”
“So, you couldn’t remember what you were going to say?” “Right. And then my hands started to shake, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe.”
“Ah. Here, let’s walk outside with the kids and get some air.” Donovan helped me out of the chair, and we followed the kids into the courtyard. The fresh air felt good on my face, and I took deep breaths.
“Have you ever had that kind of reaction to anything before?” Donovan asked quietly.
“Huh?” I blinked. “No. I mean, sometimes I’m a bit nervous like when I had to introduce myself at the aquarium with the microphone, but who wouldn’t be afraid of a microphone? But I’ve never frozen up like I just did.”
“It’s okay,” Cassie had come up behind us. “Lots of people have little freak-out moments over various things. Maybe you saw a spider and it scared you and you just don’t remember? I think it’s called arachnophobia.” Somehow, that wasn’t very comforting.
“Let’s take your mind off it. Let’s go learn more about how the Center helps animals and see our little rescue baby.” Cassie took my hand as we walked up the stairs toward a deck where we heard some very loud barking. Dogs? Here?
Despite her name, Splash had never seen the ocean until her parents accepted a job, living on a "bubble" boat to better study the deep, making her wonder if she'll be able to navigate her new environment, new friends on the boat, and impending sea sickness. But that was just the beginning for Splash, for her series of now-four books, and what I hope will be a much longer journey.
From exploring the bubble, navigating sea storms, meeting Great White sharks, and charting migration paths, it seems like Splash has done and seen it all, at least until Splash! Temperatures Rising, when she has to face two new hurdles in her personal life and in the larger world around her: public speaking... and global warming.
Throughout this book, Splash has to interact with her peers and mentors in more complicated situations she's never faced before and begin to learn who she wants to be and what difference she wants to make in the world beyond what she's done because of her parents' research. This includes getting in front of people, facing down her fears around public speaking, and educating the generation younger than her about the importance of marine biology, climate change, and our actions through green living and sustainability.
But things heat up even more offshore, and much hotter than the heat Splash feels under her collar while trying to speak in front of people, when the team who lives on the Bubble gets an urgent call from Bodega Bay about a dramatic heat wave happening there. The impact on the animals and plants is immediately evident, and it leaves Splash wondering: what can their one small team on the Bubble do to save those in Bodega Bay? How can they relieve the heat? And how can they encourage others to do the same so this doesn't happen again?
Sandy Hoag has a wonderfully fun, immersive, and at the same time character-driven and five senses-driven writing style that throws us into these stories, allows us to live through Splash and those around us, and (at least in my case!) makes us eager to make a difference in our world, too. It's an eager and accessible call to action that's written for readers between the ages of 8 and 12, but I also think it could be perfect for teens and young adults, and very fun for adults to read, especially if they're exploring this content for the first time and need more palatable stories to get them started.
I loved all four of these books, and while this one wraps up nicely, and I greatly hope that Sandy Hoag will continue to tell Splash's story, and if you give these a read, I'm sure you'll feel the same way.