It's life, Captain, but not as we know it. --Commander Spock, Star Trek: The Motion Picture
In Not As We Know It, Tom Avery (Too Much Trouble; My Brother's Shadow) invites readers to a tiny island in the English Channel where the 11-year-old narrator, Jamie, and his gravely ill twin brother, Ned, hunt for sea-tossed treasure on the stony banks of Chesil Beach.
One day, Jamie and Ned find something "awesome and terrible" in the sea. Something small and alive, with large eyes, gills and a scaly, limbed body. Something that grabs Ned by the wrist with its long thin hands. Ned, the risk taker who "boldly goes," is purely excited, and promptly names the merman Leonard after their beloved Star Trek's "Doctor Leonard McCoy," but cautious Jamie is full of dread. Ned doesn't want Jamie to tell anyone about the tiny fish-man in their garage bathtub, because he doesn't want anyone to take his new friend away--like they did E.T.--and he thinks that with his dire diagnosis of cystic fibrosis, Leonard might be his "last adventure." But might Leonard instead be the miracle cure Ned needs? Jamie wavers between feeling hopeful and being jealous of the creature's ever-strengthening, "unknowable" bond with his brother.
Avery tells this captivating story with fresh prose that reels in its readers... and then guts them. Jamie's devotion to his smaller, weaker twin is touching, as is Ned's clear-eyed awareness of his own condition. Devoted parents, homeschooling, Granddad's legends of healing merpeople and the strange fish-man are all part of this shining constellation of love, hope and loss. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness