Red Sea

January 1, 2006
Gr 7-10 -Libby, 14, is on a yearlong sailing adventure with her mother and stepfather, Duncan. Stuck in Djibouti awaiting favorable seas, she makes her discontent known to everyone, at every turn. She deliberately dilly-dallies on the day of departure, which causes her boat to miss traveling with the flotilla as planned. Sailing through dangerous waters, Libby's family is alone when pirates attack. Duncan is killed, and her mother is badly wounded. The teen is left to her own devices to survive, nurse her mother, and find the right course to safety. An exciting and suspenseful survival tale." -Elizabeth Fernandez, Brunswick Middle School, Greenwich, CT"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2005
Gr. 8-11. Libby, the book's sullen, cranky 14-year-old heroine, fights her stepfather, Duncan, at every turn and finds ways to cross her mother. But she is on a year's sailing voyage with them, whining all the way. They miss departing with their flotilla on the Red Sea because Libby is deliberately late. So intending to catch up, the family sails alone; then, modern-day pirates attack them, and, almost simultaneously, a storm comes up. Duncan is murdered, the boat trashed, and Libby's mother seriously injured, leaving Libby to figure out their location, sail the boat, whose engine was wrapped in nets by the pirates, and to try and keep her mother and herself alive. Libby's first-person voice is by turns cocky and terrified, and there's lots of fascinating sailing lore and the joy of watching Libby figure out what to do next, and how to do it. An absolute page-turner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)