Nadia is a sixth-grade student at Epiphany Middle School. She is chubby, has freckles on her nose, and bright red curly hair. Nadia is totally devoted to her dog, Ginger, who she believes is a “genius.” Because of her parents’ recent divorce, Nadia moves to New York state with her mother. Her mother, who is originally from New York, gets a job working for Noah’s father, a dentist. Nadia’s father stays in Florida, sells the house they lived in, and moves to a “swinging-singles apartment complex.”
Nadia’s life has changed completely. Because everything is new, nothing is familiar to her. She has not made new friends in New York yet, and when she tries to see old friends when she visits her father in Florida, it is a chore to make arrangements to get together. Consequently, Nadia chooses Ginger’s company. Nadia feels that “inside [her] there [is] a lot of best friendship that no one but Ginger [is] using.” She also feels left out and unimportant. Nobody told Nadia that Margaret Draper (her grandfather’s new wife) had arranged her mother’s job interview with Dr. Gershom in Epiphany. “No one seemed to think that it would matter to [her] where [she] lived” or that she would have to commute between her parents. When she visits her father, her father doesn’t ask her about the sea turtles (Nadia had written a paper for school about the sea turtles and received an A on the paper), he asks Margaret. And later, when a nest of sea turtles hatches, Nadia’s grandfather hugs and congratulates Margaret, Ethan, and her father—but not Nadia.
Nadia’s journey parallels her life and the life cycle of the sea turtles. Both Nadia and the sea turtles have parents who are not physically present, they must endure a long maturation process, and they face the possibility along the way of losing their sense of direction and not having any help. By comparing the life cycle of the sea turtles to her life with divorced parents, Nadia is able to gain insight and understanding. Like the sea turtles, Nadia and her father have been picked up and put down in unfamiliar surroundings due to a “storm in their private lives. . . .They have been stranded and both need help resettling.” After talking, Nadia and her father make a commitment to give each other “a lift between switches,” to help each other through difficult times.
At Epiphany Middle School, Nadia is in Mrs. Olinski’s homeroom. Nadia is extremely quiet and appears to be “cautious about being friendly, about showing [herself ].” Julian Singh invites Nadia to Sillington House for tea, and Nadia’s life changes forever. She becomes a member of The Souls (she chooses the name of their group) and a member of Mrs. Olinski’s Academic Bowl team. Nadia makes wonderful friends and discovers kindness in herself and in others.
