If you are looking for a very special book for a very special young sailor, this is the one to get. Beautifully bound in hard cover and richly illustrated throughout, it’s the kind of story that will bear reading many times over. It is the third book written by Ms. Hathaway, and a sequel to Takashi’s Voyage which tells the fictional tale of a young Japanese boy and his experience surviving the actual shipwreck of the bark Sindia in 1901.
The story materializes as Takashi, after being pressed into service aboard the Sindia and surviving its shipwreck on the New Jersey shore, finds himself in New York City, half way ‘round the world from home. He makes his way to South Street Seaport determined to find passage home. But that’s not so easy in a time when tall ships are being phased out. It’s going to take a little bit of help from new found friends to Takashi’s dream into reality.
Tashi befriends a young boy, Joe, whose father is captain of a schooner delivering Christmas trees from Maine to New York. They talk Tashi into sailing home with them to Maine. He spends a magical Christmas with the Pease family in Searsport, and then learns of a new steel vessel being launched in Bath. Its maiden voyage is to be to the Far East. Tashi will be going home.
This is the perfect work of historical fiction to take along on the summer cruise to anywhere. It will spin the imagination and fuel the passion to go to sea among our young sailors. It also contains a nautical glossary and a recipe for Mrs. Pease’s Molasses Cookies! A sure winner.
I’d recommend ordering Takashi’s Voyage and Float Plan, a study guide for use with Takashi’s Voyage, to keep young readers fully engaged in an around the world adventure!
$12.95 hardcover
135 pp., 23 illus., glossary, recipe
ISBN 978-1-59322-034-1
For more books, visit our reading lists for adults and for children.
‘Round the World
Coastal Boating (Reg. in Ireland No. 443222) is a division of Knowledge Clinic Ltd.