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