When Sally O'Malley Discovered the Sea
What is the thing in your life you never knew existed, but as soon as you did, you had to see it or taste it or experience it … immediately. Your need may have bordered on compulsive.
In Karen Cushman’s newest historical novel, Sally O’Malley has lived her entire young life in an orphanage. She doesn’t remember her parents. When she’s ten, Sally is moved from the orphanage to working in a small Oregon hotel where people stay to partake of the mineral waters. After three years of drudge work, the hotel owner kicks her out after an incident with church ladies and a pig. Sally has the knit cap on her head, the dress she is wearing, and the few coins she has saved from tips.
With no idea where she’s going, Sally sets off down the road. She has no sense of direction, no end goal, and nothing to eat. Cushman paints the scene with bugs and unknown sounds and dirt and wariness.
“I ate as I walked, fed by the thimbleberries, huckleberries, and dark-blue berries of the salal shrubs that grew in thickets beside the road. My hands turned purple from the berries, and I rubbed them on my face and growled. Beware! I was hungry and ferocious.
“If only I were purple all the time, so creepy that people would stay away. I hadn’t had many good experiences with people in my life, and I tended to keep clear of them.”
Sally shies away from people she meets along the road. One person asks her if she is on her way to the sea. Sally has no idea what that is. Where is it? What does it look like? She is determined to find the sea.
As she continues her journey, Sally meets Major, a supplies wagon driver. She warily agrees to accompany the brusque woman on her route. Major’s closest friends are Mabel the donkey and Sarge the dog. Along the way, they are asked to deliver Lafayette, a headstrong and pampered child, to his cousins. He, too, is orphaned.
Each of these characters changes on their journey. Cushman is a master at character development. I found myself with tear tracks in the tender moments and gasping at the sheer danger at several points.
The author is so good about painting the scenery of Oregon’s forests and beaches and rivers. I’ve never been there myself but I feel as though I have touched the underbrush in the forests and smelled the salt air.
It’s an ideal book to place in your favorite reader’s hands for summer reading, a hopeful book, but I hope you’ll pick it up for your own enjoyment.
When you come up against something new that you are determined to experience, may you have Sally O’Malley’s gumption.
When Sally O’Malley Discovered the Sea
Karen Cushman
Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2025
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