"Adventure on the High Sea!" is a true story for young readers ages 8 to 13 but should also appeal to a parent´s sense of adventure. A young girl and her family set out for the adventure opportunity of a lifetime. It's an exciting story about a family's life onboard a 38-foot sailboat and their many experiences along the way. They embark on a year-long voyage beginning in England with proposed stops in Spain, the Canary Islands, the Caribbean and Bermuda. Nothing ever goes as planned and their journey detours to Africa and later to America where they eventually settled. "An incredible story about an amazing family as told through the eyes of a young girl" -- Carolyn Splear Pratt, Growing Seasons 2006 "Fascinating tale of young girl's experiences trading the school classroom for a year-long ocean sailing adventure with her family. -- Christine Rees, yachtanju.com Can you imagine packing your suitcase, hopping aboard a sailboat with your family, and traveling from country to country for a whole year? That really happened to North Carolina author Susan Blair when she was 11 years old. In this exciting new memoir, she tells her story that began in England in 1975 on a wooden sailboat called the 'Xlendi'. The first leg of their journey brought them to many ports along the coast of Spain, where Susan and her brother Stuart discovered rubbery-tasting squid ("double yuck"), but also old stone fortresses, beautiful lace, and friendly faces. The Canary Islands were memorable for the black sand, hikes up to the volcano, and the hurricane that showed her parents' bravery. From there, they spent time in Gambia, Africa, watching the Greentree monkeys and hippopotamuses and admiring the juju beads worn by the native children. "In the village of Bambali, the children gathered around us trying to hold our hands. Many of them had never seen anyone with skin like ours before. They were curious as to why it was white." The voyage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean took 19 days and was "really boring." The family made stops in Tobago, where Susan saw barracuda, lobster, and coral snakes. They also went to Antigua and Bermuda before arriving in Bar Harbor, Maine on July 4th, 1976, America's 200th birthday. Read the book yourself to find out more about this fantastic journey and how Susan Blair ended up in North Carolina. -- My SchoolRocks Magazine, November 2006 reviewed by Resa Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief Even though I'm the daughter of a sailor, I've never learned to enjoy sailing. However, my children love it, and together we've had many sailing adventures--seated safely on our couch as we've navigated the pages of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series and other great books. Knowing the love of sailing that flows through my children's veins, I thought they'd be delighted to hear the real-life adventure of the Barry family as they sailed across the Atlantic. I was right. Susan Barry Blair has written the true story of her family's adventures in an easy-to-read, 77-page, self-published book. The book is aimed at young readers ages 8-13, but I decided to read it aloud to my crew of young sailors. We dove in during a recent trip to the lake. We spent two delightful evenings laughing at their escapades and gripping the seats of our chairs during tense moments. In 1975, when Susan was just 11 and her younger brother Stuart was 10, their parents made an announcement that would take them on the adventure of a lifetime! They had purchased a 38-foot sailboat with the intention of fixing it up and sailing from England, down the coast of Spain, into Africa, across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, and up to the United States! Can you imagine a better field trip? Susan's book is a delightful telling of her family's journey. You'll read about the hurricane they survived, the reason you should never fish using your spinnaker sail as a net, the story of their cat being rescued from crocodiles, and how to make lunch on a volcano. Her simple explanations of sailboats and sailing made me understand things I've been meaning to look up since reading Ransome's books. Susan's dad navigated their trip with traded sea charts and a sextant--a perfect real-life application for anyone who's enjoyed Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. We referred to the simple hand-sketched map in the front of the book often, and it was a helpful addition to our reading of the story. One of my favorite parts of Susan's story is the respect she shows for her parents. I'm always thrilled to read a book to my children that shows strong family relationships, and Adventure on the High Sea didn't disappoint. Susan speaks highly of her parents; her love and honor for them oozes from her writing. And you can tell that she truly enjoyed her relationship with her brother. The story is a rare, wholesome book that can be safely handed to a child to read on his own. My only complaint was a little awkwardness in both the writing style and the layout. I'm assuming because he