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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Silver Falls Library | YA BODEEN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA Fic Bodeen, S. 2012 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Robie is an experienced traveler. She's taken the flight from Honolulu to the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times. When she has to get to Midway in a hurry after a visit with her aunt in Hawaii, she gets on the next cargo flight at the last minute. She knows the pilot, but on this flight, there's a new co-pilot named Max. All systems are go until a storm hits during the flight. The only passenger, Robie doesn't panic until the engine suddenly cuts out and Max shouts at her to put on a life jacket. They are over miles of Pacific Ocean. She sees Max struggle with a raft.
And then . . . she's in the water. Fighting for her life. Max pulls her onto the raft, and that's when the real terror begins. They have no water. Their only food is a bag of Skittles. There are sharks. There is an island. But there's no sign of help on the way.
Author Notes
S. A. Bodeen's first novel, The Compound , earned her a "Flying Start" from PW and was chosen by YALSA as a Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. She lives in Oregon with her family.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6 Up-Step aside Karana (Island of the Blue Dolphins)-teen fiction has a new castaway heroine. Robie loves traveling from the Midway Atoll where she lives with her parents, both researchers, to visit her aunt in Honolulu. She's taken the trip by cargo plane many times by herself, but when a storm hits mid-flight, Robie has to bail out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. With the storm still pouring water over them, the plane's copilot, Max, inflates the emergency raft and drags Robie to safety. On the raft with a man she doesn't know, over hundreds of miles of ocean, her problems really begin. Survival means patching up the leaking raft, staying hydrated, and avoiding the tiger shark that's following her. Eventually she must face the reality that rescue may not be coming. After days and days of torture on the open water, she washes up on the beach of an uninhabited island. Is this island her salvation or her final resting place? Fast-paced and intense, Robie's story has a tight grip on readers up to the very last page. What will stick with them are the choices Robie makes amid her grim reality and her determination to stay alive. There is nothing like losing everything to make you appreciate what you have, like parents who love you and clean drinking water. This book will satisfy anyone who likes a good survival story.-Richelle Roth, Boone County Public Library, KY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A simple airplane trip becomes a harrowing struggle for survival in this tense offering from Bodeen (The Gardener). Fifteen-year-old Robie is on her way home to Midway Island after vacationing in Honolulu when the tiny cargo plane she's on develops engine problems. One emergency landing later, and Robie is forced to swim for her life, taking refuge on a life raft with Max, the copilot. In the middle of nowhere, with almost no supplies, and under constant threat of shark attack, their chances for rescue are impossibly slim. As they fight to stay alive, Max's story unfolds and Robie discovers just how far she'll go in the name of self-preservation. Bodeen's tight, pared-down sentences mirror Robie's mood as her ability to cope falls apart ("My throat was so dry, I could barely swallow. I rolled on my back and looked up at the sky. Cloudless. Again"). This psychological thriller uses natural menaces and Robie's eroding mental state to strike one dark note after another, leading to some disturbing twists and an ending that isn't entirely reassuring. Ages 12-up. Agent: Scott Mendel, Mendel Media Group. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Fifteen-year-old Robie has been visiting her Aunt Jillian in Honolulu, but when Jillian has to go out of town, Robie is left by herself. Thats okay with her until shes assaulted on the street and realizes shes really not old enough to be on her own for a week. She decides to fly home to Midway Island, boarding the monthly supply flight at the last moment. But then the aging Gulfstream turboprop goes down in a storm over open ocean; the pilot dies; and the copilot, Max, throws Robie out the window and joins her on the raft. Badly injured, he is soon unconscious, and Robie is alone. No one knows she was on the flight, the raft is leaking, theres no paddle -- she seems doomed. Robie wonders, "Could I decide what to do on my own?" Occasional action breaks Robies bleak days. She succeeds in catching a fish with her hoodie, only to have it attract a hungry shark. She finds an island, but its uninhabited. She finds a survival suit, but it contains a corpse with a half-eaten face. This is an old-fashioned adventure story, effectively related in Robies voice; a plot twist concerning Maxs fate adds depth. Except for a sappy final scene, Robies story rings true, and readers will be right there with her on the leaky raft and deserted island, longing for rescue and home. dean schneider (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
When her plane crashes, Robie's years of living with her researcher parents on Midway Island provide her with important knowledge. Cutting short a visit to an aunt in Honolulu, 15-year-old Robie gets on a small cargo plane delivering supplies that founders in an electrical storm; a crash quickly follows engine failure. The raft that becomes her support contains some useful items, but with the only other survivor almost comatose, it is clear that Robie is pretty much on her own. As a survival tale, this is both engaging and full of scary factoids and frightening possibilities. Not completely likable, Robie nonetheless engages readers with her sometimes almost stream-of-consciousness narration. She finds ways to push herself to be brave and do what is needed to survive. Her familiarity with the flora and fauna of the Pacific islands proves both asset and hindrance: She knows the danger she's in. Her thoughts are often selfish, almost whiny, but this rough-edges glimpse into her personality ultimately makes both her decisions and her chances of survival more realistic. Despite its small font, it's a quick read, thanks to plenty of white space. A compelling survival adventure. (Adventure. 11-15) ]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Here's a white-knuckler you can read in a single sitting. When her plane goes down between Honolulu and her home, the Midway Atoll, 15-year-old Robie finds herself soaked, exhausted, confused, and sprawled aboard a leaky raft with the surviving copilot, Max. At first, Robie behaves desperately, gobbling the only food on board (precisely 107 Skittles) and worrying about sharks. Eventually, though, she tells herself, You live on an island, which is basically just a bigger raft that doesn't move. The first two-thirds of Bodeen's thriller have a surreal quality, with Max periodically emerging from unconsciousness to continue a story about his high-school sweetheart, while Robie improvises fishing gear, patches leaks, and paddles for what might be an island. There is an odd lack of panic to much of the proceedings, but if you can get beyond that, this is tight, engaging, cleverly constructed fiction, with a late-in-the-game twist that makes perfect, if heartbreaking, sense.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2010 Booklist