SWALLOWTAIL LEGACY: WRECK AT ADA’S REEF
Grades 5 and Up
Michael D. Beil
Pixel + Ink/Holiday House, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64595-048-6
320 pp.
Summary
Twelve-year-old Lark Heron-Finch and her blended family visit Swallowtail Island off the shores of Lake Erie for the summer. While there - with the help of nonagenarian Dinah,
Swallowtail’s oldest resident - Lark uncovers clues connected to a decades-old boat accident,
revealing secrets about the island’s inhabitants and Lark’s own family. This compelling mystery
will hook readers with its letters, reports, art, and maps.
Curriculum Connections
Themes: Art restoration, journalism & research, shipwrecks, horses, soccer, ornithology.
Art
Lark’s stepfather’s job involves restoring works of art. Check out these before and after photographs of art conservation works.
Science
The study of birds is called ornithology. Elizabeth Heron-Finch was obsessed with birds: drawing them, studying them, and naming her children after them.
What is your favorite bird and why?
What birds live in your local region? Check out this site for a sample of birds native to Vermont.
History
Does Vermont have a history of shipwrecks? Where would that happen in our state?
See Shipwrecks of Lake Champlain.
Language Arts
Lark’s journal is the one place where she can speak the God’s honest truth (GHT).
Do you have a journal? Writing can be helpful when dealing with anger and frustration… you can even rip up your page after you’ve written it.
Wreck at Ada’s Reef uses a variety of formats to tell the story such as witness statements, maps, drawings, and letters. Does this enhance the novel or do you find it confusing?
Discussion Questions
Is Swallowtail Island a real place? Research the islands of Lake Erie and find out.
Do you understand how the ship’s bell works (tells time) on a maritime vessel?
Refer to this article for a refresher.
The Swallowtail Legacy Book Two (Betrayal by the Book) was recently published. Will you read the second story? Why or why not?
What strategies do you have to try to make friends in a new situation (such as a team or volunteer job)?
Vocabulary
Gentrification
Nonagenarian
Author Online
Michael D. Beil grew up in a small town on the shores of Pymatuning Lake in Ohio, and claims that poor TV reception helped make him the reader that he is today. He lives in Portugal with wife Laura, cats Bruno and Maisie, and dog Kit. See There’s Something About Islands, his guest post about The Swallowtail Legacy on the School Library Journal website.
Companion Books
Me, Frida, and the Peacock Ring
Andrea Cervantes (Scholastic, 2019)
Paloma, on a trip to Mexico City, meets siblings Lizzie and Gael, who want her to help them find a valuable ring that once belonged to Frida Kahlo. But Lizzie and Gael are not all that they seem.
The Parker Inheritance
Varian Johnson (Scholastic, 2019)
Candice and Brandon join forces to solve a mystery about a long-ago social injustice – that may also lead to a fortune.
The Secret Letters
Margaret Peterson Haddix (Katherine Tegen Books, 2022)
Colin and Nevaeh’s respective parents are rivals in the junk removal business – but Colin and Nevaeh form a bond over a discovery of mysterious letters between Rosemary and Toby, dating to the 1970s. The first of the Mysteries of Trash and Treasure series.
Winterhouse
Ben Guterson (Square Fish, 2018)
Orphan Elizabeth Somers is sent by her awful aunt and uncle to the Winterhouse Hotel – which turns out to be full of strange and magical secrets.
Summerlost
Ally Condie (Puffin, 2017)
Cedar, returned to the town of Iron Creek. Utah, for the summer after the loss of her father and younger brother in an accident, meets Leo and gets a job working with the Summerlost Theater Festival. Together they find themselves investigating a mystery surrounding the mysterious death of Lisette Chamberlain, a famous actress and native of Iron Creek.
The Secret Lake
Karen Inglis (Well Said Press, 2011)
Stella and Tom, newly moved to London, can’t understand the disappearances of Harry, the neighbor’s dog – until the discover a hidden time tunnel and a secret lake.
Under the Egg
Laura Mars Fitzgerald (Rocky Pond Books, 2015)
When Theodora Tenpenny spills rubbing alcohol on a painting belonging to her late grandfather, it reveals what looks like a Renaissance masterpiece hidden underneath. Theo sets out to discover where the painting came from – was it stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art?