waiting to dive.
Carly has a pretty good life, even if she has to deal with New Dad and his two kids. She loves to dive and to spend time at her family’s cabin in the woods, especially with her best friend Montana and her new diving buddy Sam. But when Montana dives into a log and breaks her back, nothing seems simple anymore.
Silver Birch award finalist, 2002.
"Carly, 10, likes to dive, and she's very good at it, whether she's practicing at her local pool in Victoria, Canada, or diving with friends from a rock near her family's island cabin. Her candid first-person, present-tense narrative will draw middle-graders as she grumbles about her "New Dad" and her stepfamily (her Real Dad is dead), shops at the Gap, and tries to act cool. The island setting is idyllic until a catastrophe happens: her best friend, Montana, dives from the rock and breaks her back on a big sunken log. The shock of the accident in the island paradise is not sensationalized, and as Montana slowly recovers, Carly overcomes her grief and depression to dive again like a champion. She also accepts her stepdad. The diving action is exhilarating, the stepfamily dynamics are realistic, and readers will appreciate Carly's realization about "all the stuff that could happen that you can't control at all."
- Booklist
barely hanging on.
It seems almost impossible, but Carly’s life has just gotten more complicated: her mother is expecting a baby, and to top it off, her dreams of Olympic diving glory are jeopardized when she develops a fear of heights — which kind of makes platform diving a little difficult. Then, when she and her friends decide to do their history project on notorious cult leader Brother XII, things get a even more interesting...
Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Award finalist, 2003.
"Karen Rivers' writing has a perfect pitch in its expression of Carly's feelings. Carly is a very genuine likable character. The tone and theme are reminiscent of novels by Sharon Creech and Kit Pearson...The Gold Diggers Club is a first rate novel for young adults."
- CM Magazine
the actual total truth.
Carly doesn’t know how she’ll survive the next few months. She’s suddenly grown taller than everyone in her class — boys and girls. Her mom has just had a new baby and is paying no attention to her. She’s also just found out she’s going to have to take “Math for Tortured Losers” in summer school to make it to Grade Six. To make matters worse, a boy Carly can’t stand is assigned to be her “peer tutor.” And now, Carly is determined to find the culprit who is wounding animals near her family’s cabin. How is Carly going to survive?
"Carly's narrative voice drives this novel, and, if readers like the voice, they're going to love the book. Carly is engaging, bouncy, and believable. She narrates in the present tense and speaks directly to the reader...Girls between ages 9-12 will cruise through this quick read and ask for more."
- CM Magazine
The first two books in this series were originally published by Orca Book Publishers as Waiting to Dive and The Gold Diggers Club. They looked like this:
