Red Sea

Deborah Dowson is a Canadian children’s librarian living in Powell,
Ohio.

Lib is angry with her mother for bringing her on a sailing adventure
with her stepfather Duncan, and she is as uncooperative and as insolent
as she dares to be. The morning they are scheduled to leave the port of
Djibouti with a group of several boats that are travelling together for
safety, she is late getting back from town. As they sail on the Red Sea
toward the Port of Sudan alone, modern-day pirates attack. Lib’s
stepfather is shot dead and her mother is seriously injured. The timing
of a severe storm scares the pirates off but also cripples the boat. Lib
alone must deal with the catastrophe in order to survive. As she
overcomes each physical obstacle, she comes to terms with her feelings
for her stepfather, and in examining her own behaviour, she resolves to
be true to herself in the future.

This exciting adventure story features an ordinary girl who rises to
the tremendous challenge of survival under life-threatening
circumstances. Lib’s struggle is depicted in realistic detail. The
young teen is tested to the limits of her physical, mental, and
emotional strength and becomes a hero, saving her mother’s life as
well as her own. The setting on a sailboat on the Red Sea is exotic, yet
the story of Lib’s family life is a pretty typical one of divorce and
adjustment to change that many teenage girls will relate to. Highly
recommended.