Reviews For Writers by redick. Most reviews are for readers. These are for writers looking for commentary on technique. Martha Riva Palacio Obón's Secrets We Tell the Sea (Book) Translated from the Spanish by Lourdes Heuer. I suppose most would pass over this work. It's admitted target audience is 8 - 15 years old or Middle School. What can I say? I'm a sucker for titles. The story is rather light weight. It's a coming of age story as told by a 10 year old. The author does not pull any punches or condescend to the reader. It talks about being a daughter while her mother is in an abusive relationship. Her anxiety of moving to a new school, a friend's death and trying to heal with her mother. Woven into all of that is her difficultly relating to others and the ocean metaphor. She states up front that she's a kind of mermaid and starts to reenvision the entire world from the context of other sea life. She doesn't not get butterflies in her stomach, she gets red crabs. Her "school" mates (incoming pun) are various fish and so on. If you ever feel that you're laying it on a bit thick. Examine this book. It's a quick read and wonderfully done. You have permission to take a metaphor and run with it.