Sand Dollar Summer by Kimberly Jones 206 p.

Annalise's mother has been badly injured in a car accident, and she has decided to take Annalise and her younger brother, the nonspeaking Free, to her native Maine where she will recuperate over the summer. Annalise is angry at leaving her friends, disappointed by the remote and tiny rental house on the beach, and scared of the powerful sea. Becoming friends with an old Abenaki man next door helps Annalise start to accept what life has dealt her when everyone she values is threatened by a hurricane.