Runaways on the Inside Passage

Have you ever wanted to run away to Alaska? Well that's what these kids did! In Runaways on the Inside Passage by Joe Upton 13 year-old twins David and Annie are abandoned by their mother and they decide to sail to Alaska in search of their father with help from Lars, an old family friend. What happens when Lars becomes ill and the Coast Guard goes after them? Will they make it to their father's home alive? This is a great book for children of all ages! I highly recommend it. The way it is written it is like you are there on the boat deck looking out at the high seas. It is action-packed and makes almost any other book pale in comparison to this one. You learn a lot about sailing and the lengths people will go to in search of a family. If you read this book you will find out about love, kindness, and teamwork through the perspective of two 13 year olds. This book is completely amazing!

Every "Books for boys" program I have attended lately emphasizes technology, non-fiction, hands-on how-to-do-it stuff. It's in here. For the boy who is being forced to read fiction by a well-meaning teacher, this is great. I found the loss of tension at the ending to be a little less satisfying than the rest of the book but in general I will recommend this to my library users, young and old, male and female, who are looking for something with things to learn, in addition to story.

Anyone who has read Joe Upton's other books knows that he has forgotten more about the sea and its changing moods than the reviewer from the School Library Journal will ever begin to understand. If the language is a bit challenging, so much the better. Kids love this book!

The author of this book knows all to well what can go wrong on a trip to Alaska in the dead of winter. He also knows that a pair of plucky teenagers can plausibly make the trip by themselves with a little advice from an old fisherman too sick to leave his bunk and some well-timed good luck. The thirteen-year-old brother and sister who make this trip have just enough Indiana Jones bravado and resourcefulness to meet the challenges and not so much that they are no longer believable. They experience, as have generations of fishermen, the very real fear of battling winter storms, the delicious peace of a safe haven after harrowing days at sea, and the warm but gruff hospitality of the people who live in the remote communities along the British Columbia and Alaska coast. "Runaways on the Inside Passage" is a nice mix of real situations and fiction that piles one adventure after another and brings the crew of a Foss tug towing a barge across the Queen Charlottes just in time to make sure this novel reaches a happy ending.