The Great Wide Sea

March 1, 2009
Gr 7-10-Ben Byron, 15, is angry. Just two months after the death of his mother in a car accident, his dad, crushed by the loss of his wife, sells their house and small boat and uses the money to buy the Chrysalis, a 30-foot sailboat. He uproots Ben and two younger sons for a yearlong tour of the Bahamas. Life goes as smoothly as it can for a while, despite the tension, chores, and close quarters. But one morning everything changestheir father disappears. When the boat heads into a terrible storm, Ben must act. Throughout the novel, the protagonist's emotions ring true. Although the sailing details are a bit technical at times, Herlong spins an engrossing, suspenseful tale of survival.Melyssa Malinowski, Kenwood High School, Baltimore, MD

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 15, 2008
Grades 6-10 *Starred Review* Soon after their mothers death, 15-year-old Ben and his two younger brothers are stunned when their father sells their home, buys a sailboat, and announces that they will live on board and cruise the Bahamas for the next year. Wrenched from everything he knows and forced to obey his father-captains orders, Ben starts out angry and finds no escape. As he says, We were always together. When their father sets a course for Bermuda and disappears overboard one night, the boys have little time to wonder if he jumped or fell before theyre struggling to stay afloat in a fierce Atlantic storm. Lost at sea in a damaged boat, they find their way to an island where they are stranded with little food, little water, and little hope of rescue. Herlongs first book is a great survival story and a fine portrayal of family relationships in a time of crisis. Justifiably angry, yet logical, reflective, and at times compassionate, Ben makes a sympathetic protagonist, and his brothers are no less appealing. With enough detail to make the settings real and a minimum of metaphor, the first-person narrative is clean and direct. This page-turner of an adventure story is also a convincing, compelling, and ultimately moving novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2009
As if Ben's mother's death in a car crash weren't hard enough for him to handle, his grieving father decides to sell the family home, buy a boat, and take Ben and his two younger brothers sailing around the Bahamas for a year. The novel's main strengths lie in its methodical evocation of nautical life and its depiction of the deepening solidarity among the brothers, especially after, halfway through the narrative, Dad goes missing. Did he accidentally fall overboard during his nighttime watch, or did he commit suicide? Either way, the boys -- ages sixteen, eleven, and six -- are left to face a fierce storm on their own. With precise, adrenaline-raising descriptive prose, Herlong recounts their seemingly superhuman struggle against wind and wave, a struggle that culminates with them safe but stranded on a deserted island. The tension established between Ben and his father throughout the story is sometimes forced, but the brothers' relationships with each other have more nuance. "No matter what happened the day before, you wake up and there is life and you have to do something about it," Ben reflects. But for the three boys, doing something about it involves not just strength and ingenuity, but also intense devotion that gives them reason to keep living.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2009
Ben's grieving widower father sells their home, buys a boat, and takes Ben and his brothers sailing for a year. Halfway through the narrative, Dad goes missing. Did he fall overboard or commit suicide? Either way, the boys must face a fierce storm on their own. With precise, adrenaline-raising descriptive prose, Herlong recounts their seemingly superhuman struggle against wind and wave.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)