Overview

A 2026 CBCA NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR YOUNGER READERS A beautiful and deeply moving story about friendship, family, hope and the power of the ocean, for middle-grade readers who love a mystery, from popular children's author Ashleigh Barton. Beatrice Glass - Bea - lives in a tiny fishing village that's sleepy all year until the summertime, when the tourists flock in and most of the locals leave. But summer is also when Bea's favourite person in the entire world, her fun and hilarious uncle, Byron, comes to stay. On their last day together the previous summer, Byron had given Bea an intriguing antique book containing a map of Somewhere, a mysterious island off the coast, and promised that next summer they'd sail to Somewhere together for their best adventure yet. That was last year. Now summer has arrived, but Byron hasn't. And now it looks like he never will. Are the book and Byron's disappearance linked? Byron has left some clues for Bea - a scavenger hunt of sorts designed to bring her and her new friend, Arabella, together and give Bea one last magical summer. Could Somewhere hold the key to both Bea's and Arabella's future? A story of lost and found, of friendship, family, hope and the power of the ocean, for middle-grade readers who love a mystery. 'Emotionally and structurally satisfying, its evocative, elegiac tone balanced by tidy prose that keeps the story grounded . . . It also conjures vibes of older classics such as Lucy M. Boston's Green Knowe series' BOOKS+PUBLISHING 'A beautiful middle-grade novel with a whimsical olde-worlde feel . . . A truly lovely book' GOOD READING MAGAZINE

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9780734423627

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Author Information

Ashleigh Barton is a children's author and copywriter. Before writing full time, she pursued her love of books (children's books especially) by working in some of Australia's biggest publishing houses, running marketing and publicity campaigns for globally renowned authors and illustrators. Ashleigh is the author of eight successful and highly acclaimed picture books and two junior fiction series, and has been recognised on the CBCA Notables and/or Shortlist in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Her picture book Dinosaur in My Pocket was a 2025 CBCA Notable Book. In 2025 Ashleigh published her acclaimed middle grade fiction book How to Sail to Somewhere and her picture book Hedgehog or Echidna?. Ashleigh lives in Sydney with her husband, three children and their dog.

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