To Night Owl From Dogfish

To Night Owl from Dogfish is a middle-grade novel by Holly Goldberg Sloan, published in 2019. It is an epistolary novel, meaning it is composed of letters, emails, voicemail transcripts, text messages, and other pieces of communication between characters. Much of the novel consists of emails between the novel’s two protagonists, 12-year-old girls Bett Devlin and Avery Bloom. Although Bett and Avery seem to have very little in common and live in different states, they begin writing to each other after discovering that their fathers are in a romantic relationship and want the girls to become friends or even “sisters”—an idea that both girls initially resist. The novel explores themes of The Diversity of Family Structures and Found Family; Tradition, Change, and Acceptance; and The Process of Growing Up.

Plot Summary

Bett Devlin first emails Avery Bloom to explain that their two fathers, Marlow Devlin (a builder from California) and Sam Bloom (an architect from New York City), have begun dating each other. Bett is not happy about this, having gotten used to being an only child with a single parent. What’s worse is that the fathers plan on sending the girls to the same summer camp and expect them to become friends. The two girls come from very different backgrounds: Avery goes to a fancier school that gives students their own email addresses, while Bett has less money and usually can’t afford summer camp.

At first, Avery is sure Bett has the wrong person (or is a scammer) because she hasn’t heard her father talk about his new relationship. However, when Avery confronts Sam, he admits that he does have a boyfriend but was waiting to tell her until he was sure it was serious. Avery now feels the same way Bett does: like she needs to sabotage the relationship because she does not want to expand her small family, which she has gotten comfortable with.

The girls begin plotting how to resist their fathers’ plan. At first, Bett tries refusing to go to camp, but when this doesn’t work, the girls agree not to speak to each other once they arrive. Meanwhile, the girls discuss topics such as animals, sports, fears, lip gloss, menstruation, and how they were conceived.

Shortly after arriving at the camp, CIGI, the girls start doing activities together and become very close friends. Meanwhile, Marlow and Sam take a motorcycle trip through China. However, their vacation becomes stressful when one of the motorcycles breaks down and they lose their passports.

Because the fathers are in China, they cannot attend the camp’s Family Day. Hoping to surprise Avery, Bett secretly emails Avery’s biological mother, a playwright named Kristina, inviting her to Family Day. Sam and Kristina were once friends but now do not get along, so Avery hasn’t seen her mother in eight years.

When Kristina shows up on Family Day, Avery is at first angry that Bett invaded her privacy. However, the girls soon start to have a great time with Kristina, and Avery is thankful Bett invited her. Kristina’s driver disappears after getting a call from his girlfriend, and there are no buses out of town until the following day, so Kristina decides to spend more time with Avery. The girls leave their cabin to hang out with her by the lake, talking all night. All three describe this experience as magical, meaningful, and transformative, but the camp staff expels both girls. The director, Daniel Birnbaum, releases Avery to Kristina, her biological mother, even though she wasn’t on the emergency contact form. The camp gets Bett’s grandmother, Betty (Gaga), to come and collect her.

When Gaga arrives, Bett convinces her to go to Seelocken, where Avery and Kristina are. Gaga starts reading lines for Kristina’s play, and Kristina writes her a major part into it. Kristina learns that the play has been selected for an off-Broadway run in the fall. Meanwhile, the girls live with “no rules,” driving golf carts and (in Bett’s case) eating pepperoni pizza for every meal. The girls and Betty write to Marlow and Sam about how much fun they are having, how much they like each other, and how much they love Kristina. Betty tells the girls Marlow was planning to propose to Sam, and the girls ask their fathers if this has happened yet. They even begin making plans for the wedding. Avery emails her friend Ariel’s father, Judge Evan Balakian, asking if he will perform the marriage.

When Sam learns Kristina has picked Avery up from camp, he is furious and becomes even more stressed out about his lost passport. Sam and Marlow wait in long lines for weeks trying to get out of China. Meanwhile, the two men also break up.

The girls are devastated because they have come to love the idea of being sisters and having a bigger family. Bett writes to Kristina, lamenting that they will no longer be a family, but Kristina says she wants Bett in her family no matter what. Meanwhile, Gaga goes to New York City to star in Kristina’s play; she lives across the hall from Kristina. Gaga also befriends the doorman, Dinos Tombras, who enjoys the snacks Betty makes and is also a theater enthusiast.

Although they live in different states, Bett and Avery continue their pen pal relationship, discussing the situation between their fathers as well as other details about their lives, including the fact that Sam and Kristina have decided to share custody of Avery. Bett and Avery decide to trick their fathers into attending Kristina’s play on opening night. Then, Sam gets a new boyfriend named Bob Bildeback, which threatens the girls’ plan. They decide to invite a friend of Kristina’s named Javier Martinez, a ballet dancer, to be a “fake date” for Marlow in order to make Sam jealous. However, Javier and Marlow end up liking each other and start dating, while Sam and Bob break up.

With the money from Kristina’s play, Gaga offers to pay for Avery to attend summer camp again. Avery and Bett agree that they should attend the same summer camp but not tell their dads or Kristina. They select one called Camp Far View Tarn in Maine. The camp does not have internet access, which the girls think will prevent their dads from finding out they’re together. However, the campers are required to row across an entire lake at the end of the summer, the prospect of which scares Avery. Furthermore, Camp Far View Tarn is all about traditions, which neither girl enjoys. Bett feels there are too many rules, and Avery feels like she is being forced to do things she hates for no reason. One fellow camper, Brielle, says having a father who is gay probably damaged Bett. Bett gets in a fight with Brielle at a dance, while Avery dances with Brielle’s brother, Tyler. Tyler later writes Avery a letter to apologize for his sister’s behavior and reassure her that he does not feel the way his sister does.

Tensions rise as Avery becomes increasingly anxious about the canoe trip. She and Bett get into an argument and decide not to partner for the last few activities of the summer. They are in separate canoes during the trip across the lake when another girl accidentally knocks Bett on the head and into the water with an oar. Avery dives in to save her but struggles to swim, so Brielle dives in to save Avery. All three girls end up in the same hospital in Maine, where their families bond, including Marlow, Javier, Sam, Gaga, Kristina, and Dinos (who drove Gaga and Kristina up). This experience heals the friendship between Marlow and Sam, who learn to transcend their differences for their daughters’ sake, even if they do not get back together romantically.

The novel still ends with a wedding, but not the one the girls initially expected. The novel ends with a wedding speech cowritten by Bett and Avery for Gaga and Dinos’s wedding. It explains the girls’ desire to be sisters in a larger family, so they are pleased with how things have turned out.