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Thirteen-year-old
Sophie loves the sea, and she longs to see Bompie, her grandfather
who lives in England. So when her three uncles and two cousins decide
to sail from their home in the U.S., across the Atlantic Ocean to
Ireland, and then to England, to visit Bompie, she begs a place
on the boat. She'd be the only girl aboard, though, and Uncle Mo
and Uncle Stew don't want to take her. But Uncle Dock knows how
important it is to her. So does her father. So they say she can
go. Sophie doesn't totally understand why making this trip is important
to her. She feels as if the sea is calling her to be away, to be
free. But she feels as if something is pulling her back at the same
time. She only knows that sailing to Ireland in Uncle Dock's 45-foot
sailboat, The Wanderer, to visit Bompie, is something she has to
do.
At
first the voyage is idyllic. Sophie takes her sleeping bag out on
deck and sleeps under the stars. Dolphins play alongside the boat.
And Sophie and her cousins lie on deck watching a family of whales
--- mother, father, and baby --- swim behind them. But not everything
is hugs and kisses. Sophie has to pull her own weight on the boat.
Some things are neat, like when she climbs into the bosun's chair
and gets hoisted to the top of the mast to fix an anchor light.
Neither her cousin Brian nor her cousin Cody will do that, but Sophie
loves it. When she has to take her turn killing and cleaning the
fish, though, she hates it --- she just won't let anybody know.
Everybody has trouble getting along, too. Uncle Stew and his son
Brian are bossy, they make lists of what everybody is supposed to
do, and they yell at Cody for joking around. Cody's father, Uncle
Mo, calls Cody a knuckleheaded doofus.
Uncle
Stew decides that everybody has to teach something to the others
during the trip, like radio code, how to use a sextant, and how
to read charts. Cody teaches them how to juggle. Only Uncle Dock
and Sophie really try to learn. Everybody else thinks it's a stupid
thing to do. Sophie decides to teach her relatives the stories that
Bompie has told her. And she tells great stories about Bompie. The
only thing is, Sophie has never met Bompie. And her parents aren't
really her parents. They adopted her. Brian needles her all the
time about being an orphan, but Sophie acts like she isn't one.
And she insists that Bompie told her the stories.
The
mystery of Sophie's past bugs Brian. He thinks Sophie lives in a
dream world and makes things up. Cody feels sorry for her and wants
to know what happened to her real parents. This becomes very important
the closer they get to England. Sophie is scared about seeing Bompie,
but she doesn't know why. Then a terrible storm engulfs the sailboat,
and they all fight for their lives. Sophie's nightmares merge with
real life when a gigantic wave rises up out of the ocean and sweeps
over the boat. Will they survive?
This
book is written in the form of the journals that Sophie and Cody
keep during their journey. The mystery builds as the books progresses.
Will Sophie live to see Bompie? What will she discover about herself
if she does? Is Cody really a knuckleheaded doofus? If you read
this book, you won't be able to put it down until you discover the
answer to these questions.
---
Reviewed by Tamara Penny
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