In 1912, eleven-year-old Lucy Landry (Ojibwe and French American) finds herself briefly adrift when her guardian, Miss Mamie, passes away. Lucy’s father perished in a recent shipwreck; her mother is long dead. The Ojibwe Martin family, who reside in a lighthouse on a minuscule island on Lake Superior, offer to foster her. Lucy, who is afraid of water, gets off on the wrong foot with most of the six Martin children, who resent her sudden presence in their family life. Determined to be a help, not a burden, Lucy works extra hard around the house, taking on tasks without being asked—a strategy that backfires when she makes mistakes. (She digs up flowers, for instance, thinking they’re weeds.) Imaginative Lucy copes with her discomfort and emotions by assuming various personas and telling fanciful tales about her father’s sailing days, further exasperating the Martin siblings. She is particularly fixated on her father’s story of a message in a bottle that told of a ruby necklace that was lost on a capsized boat. She’s convinced that if only she had a chance to search, she could find the jewelry washed up in nearby Mermaid Cove. First, though, she must conquer her fear of the lake. Lucy’s story, with her big imagination, is reminiscent of Anne of Green Gables and will appeal to readers who appreciate adventure and danger in their historical fiction.