Jacob I Have Loved (1980) by Katherine Paterson

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Jacob I Have Loved (1980)
by Katherine Paterson

Ross Island, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland

 Maryland: 10/10

  I thought this 1980 YA novel about living on an island was part of the Virginia chapter, but apparently it is not.  I didn't even know people lived on islands in Chesapeake Bay!   The book is about a young girl growing up on this island during World War II, more or less.  A mysterious stranger moves into town, there is a big storm, people go off to war, come back.  Narrator does nothing, goes nowhere.  The reader does get a very real sense of what living on one of these islands was like back in the day, so it makes sense that Straight included it in the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project but other than that it's standard bildungsroman stuff here.