Customer Reviews

The Great Wide Sea

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a fifth grade teacher, I find it difficult to find books that appeal to everyone in my class. I either please the girls, or the boys, and usually it's just the girls. Finally, I have found a book that all of my students enjoy. In fact, for the first time, both boys and girls are begging, "Don't stop. Please keep reading." I even have students begging to take it home so that they can find out what happens next. The Great Wide Sea, by M. H. Herlong, is spell-binding, (even for the adults)!

The spectacular achievement of this book is that it shows dads what they look like to their teenage sons. It holds the mirror of your son's eyes right up close, where all the unflattering things show. Then it shows us that our sons love us anyway. I finished the book, wiped a way a tear -- something I almost never need to do -- and hugged my sons.

It is definitely a terrific sea yarn. Like all great books, it builds in some wise observations about life without being the least bit preachy. Perhaps that is because the wisdom comes through the voice of a fifteen-year old who, after struggling with dad, becomes the father figure through chance, or maybe through a choice (a question you will have to answer for yourself, Dad). There are also some sly allusions to Hemingway sea tales and to Hurricane Katrina (the author is from New Orleans), but maybe I just made that up.

Read the two-page prologue and you will be hooked. Give it to your son. Give it to your Dad. Read it with your son, or for your husband, or your brother. Sail in your son's boat (or your father, husband, or brother's boat) for a while.

If this is a tale oft told, I can think of no other than has been told so eloquently. The author's descriptions are as vivid as they are beautiful. Male or female, young or old, you will find this first work by M. H. Herlong touching and incisive. If the last portion of the book doesn't bring a tear to your eye, you are cold indeed. Add the information provided at the companion website [...] and you will double your pleasure.

I received this book Friday and read it in one sitting on Sunday. It is excellent in so many dimensions. Young readers will love the gripping plot in the fascinating nautical setting, as well as how the boys, with only themselves to rely on, manage to survive. Older readers will appreciate the near-poetic quality of the prose. Having said that, I have to confess that I was so enthralled by the plot that I hardly had time to appreciate the marvelous language. I may just have to read the book again, slower!!

This book captures the imagination both as a beautiful and harrowing adventure story and a drama of family loss. The aftermath of his mother's death challenges the narrator's relationship with his father. But when Ben confronts a life and death struggle at sea his bond to his young brothers becomes the focus of this gripping tale.

suspenseful adventure...insightful characterizations...powerful language...what a gift Madaline Herlong has given to young adult readers and classroom teachers! J. Danos

This incredible first novel is a gripping and extremely well told adventure tale that will keep you turning page after page. Though her vivid descriptions will have you feeling each toss and sway of the boat, you realize it is much more. Told through the eyes of the oldest son, it is a poignant story of a family coming to grips with a terrible loss and it is the bond between the father and his sons and the siblings with each other that will ultimately resound in your memory. This is a wonderful story of loss, love, perceived betrayal, and peace. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to future publications by Ms. Herlong.

Artist create paintings to tell a story or to depict an emotion choosing pigments, mixing the colors, and using various stroke techniques to create a work of art. M.H. Herlong has done this with words creating a masterpiece of literature. She skillfully paints the picture of every character and scene leading the reader through a captivating tale that one cannot put down.

"The Great Wide Sea." That's just it--the great wide sea! You (the narrator) and your two younger brothers are alone--without a GPS system--on the great wide sea. It's always possible to use the stars. After all, that's what sailors did hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Let's add a terrible storm, you know, that perfect storm with thirty-foot waves. Oh, lest I forget--it's time for your watch and you discover that your dad is gone. Gone. And that storm is almost upon you.

"The Great Wide Sea" is one fantastic read/ride for the middle school group (I particularly had boys in mind, the ones who claim books are boring), for as I live and breathe, this book equals the Brian books by Gary Paulsen in intensity, character development, plot surprises, and quality writing. I could not read "The Sea" fast enough!

As librarian in a PK3-8 school, I look for this kind of book to recommend to "reluctant" readers AND those readers who absolutely will appreciate my recommendations, regardless of genre. Put this one in the basket of action/adventure, for it is dynamic and jolting!

One day Ben's mother dies in a car accident. His father sells their home and everything in it, buys a sailboat and takes the three boys, ages five, eleven, and fifteen for a year to sail around the hundreds of islands that make up the Bahamas. It's a whirlwind of adventure that the boys do not want to take. Too much too soon, no time to adjust to the loss of their mother. Everyone must become sea worthy and learn a separate seagoing task, even Gerry, the youngest.

Everything is fine, despite Ben's growing resentment of his father, a man almost drowning in sorrow and guilt, until the morning that Ben gets up to take his place on duty and finds his father nowhere. Ben and Dylan, the middle brother, ride out the waves of this terrible storm, until they crash on a coral reef near an island and begin the second wave of their forced adventure--marooned on an island.

This is an incredible story. For a first novel, not one word rings false, not in the first person narration or the details of the story. Not only is the novel filled with sometimes almost unbearable suspense, but educational details about sailing and the Bahamas themselves. I personally had no clue that the Bahamas were more than a couple of islands: hundreds of islands fill that geography.

The story focuses on Ben and his growing maturity and acceptance of responsibility. I really came to like this character, as well as his brothers. With Ben I began to dislike the father more and more. A really good writer can do that, mold and bend opinions and affect reader projections. Not at any time did I know what to expect. Even the ending is unexpected.

No pirates, no sharks--well, just one or two--just a sailboat and three boys and a man. What can go wrong?

I am 11 years old and just recently read this book. The writer is very good at describing the different points of view but the story is super boring and slow. I mean, I'm three quarter through the book and all I've heard is, "Pull up the main sheet!", "Check the bow!", "Gerry's cuddled up with blankie in the cockpit..." So I'm going to give this two stars.