The Polly Page Yacht Club

The summer Polly Page turns thirteen, she decides she's too old for the Hungry Six Club. What she wants is something far grander: her own yacht club, a ship, and an expedition to the mysterious Lost Island. Gathered with her friends at the novel's opening, the girls are finishing school and facing down the prospect of a summer wholly their own, no adults, no supervision, just the open water and whatever secrets the island holds. What unfolds is an ode to girlhood autonomy in an era when girls were rarely granted any. Polly leads with brass and brilliance, organizing trips, learning to sail, convincing her friends that they can do exactly what they set their minds to. The challenges are practical and real, yet this is never a story about failure. It's about the fierce joy of trying, of claiming space in the world simply because you believe you deserve to be there. A century later, The Polly Page Yacht Club endures because it offers something many children's books still don't: a vision of girls who are bold, self-directed, and unapologetically ambitious.