Author Joy McCullough once lived in a castle in Scotland with her older sister and their parents. Now, she’s written her second middle grade novel about a twelve year old girl named Callie, short for Calliope, whose American parents inherit a Scottish castle. They take the entire family, the parents, Callie, and her little brother Jax, to Scotland to renovate the castle and live there. And Callie is both excited and thankful to start a new life, away from San Francisco, where her erstwhile friends have deserted her because of a disagreement over what it means to grow up. Callie is ready to reinvent herself.
The problem is that Callie, even if she calls herself Calliope, is still the same bookish and somewhat awkward person she was back in California. And it seems as if friendships will be no easier in Scotland than they were back home. So Callie begs to be homeschooled, a plan her parents agree to, on one condition: Callie must participate in some sort of social activity.
Almost by accident, Callie chooses birding, or as they call it in Scotland, twitching. The story of how Callie becomes a dedicated twitcher, makes friends, and learns to be comfortable with her own identity and decisions, is a good coming of age/friendship story set in a very modern day Scotland, despite the castle part. As her parents settle in and remake the castle into a tourist attraction, Callie also settles and comes to terms with her own opinions and interests and abilities. She learns that standing up to bullies and irresponsible and foolish so-called friends has its costs, but resisting peer pressure and standing up for what is right also has its rewards.
Letters from the former owner of the castle to her mum, written during the evacuation of children to the country during World War II, are interspersed throughout the narrative, but I don’t really think the letters add much to the novel. Pippa, the letter writer, has an experience that somewhat parallels Calllie’s, and Pippa finds strength and solace in bird watching, too. But there’s not enough of Pippa’s story for her character to become fully realized, so it’s really Callie’s story that the reader wants to follow.
Across the Pond is a great book for Anglophiles, or Scotophiles (is that a word?), for anyone who’s ever dreamed of living in a castle, and for all of us who feel like misfits from time to time. The birding (twitching) details and the Scottish words and insults that are sprinkled throughout the story makes it even more fun to read.