Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

Starred Review Soon after their mother's death, 15-year-old Ben and his two younger brothers are stunned when their father sells their home, buys a sailboat, and announces that they will live on board and cruise the Bahamas for the next year. Wrenched from everything he knows and forced to obey his father-captain's orders, Ben starts out angry and finds no escape. As he says, "We were always together." When their father sets a course for Bermuda and disappears overboard one night, the boys have little time to wonder if he jumped or fell before they're struggling to stay afloat in a fierce Atlantic storm. Lost at sea in a damaged boat, they find their way to an island where they are stranded with little food, little water, and little hope of rescue. Herlong's first book is a great survival story and a fine portrayal of family relationships in a time of crisis. Justifiably angry, yet logical, reflective, and at times compassionate, Ben makes a sympathetic protagonist, and his brothers are no less appealing. With enough detail to make the settings real and a minimum of metaphor, the first-person narrative is clean and direct. This page-turner of an adventure story is also a convincing, compelling, and ultimately moving novel.

Horn Book (Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Ben's grieving widower father sells their home, buys a boat, and takes Ben and his brothers sailing for a year. Halfway through the narrative, Dad goes missing. Did he fall overboard or commit suicide? Either way, the boys must face a fierce storm on their own. With precise, adrenaline-raising descriptive prose, Herlong recounts their seemingly superhuman struggle against wind and wave.

Kirkus Reviews

Following the death of his wife, a father takes his three sons on a yearlong sailing trip. Told in 15-year-old Ben's voice, the story follows the family as they island-hop through the Bahamas. Anger is Ben's method of coping with his mother's death and his father's irrational behavior. Eleven-year-old Dylan disconnects, retreating into his intellect, while five-year-old Gerry becomes increasingly fearful. After a violent storm, the boys awaken to find the boat has been pushed off-course and their father is missing. Left alone, they must band together for survival. Herlong displays a vast knowledge of sailing and of island life, offering a strong sense of setting. The repetitiveness of the characters' reactions to their situation and each other will make readers impatient, however. A fast-moving plot and life-or-death situations will keep readers interested, but uneven characters and a lack of connection with their plight will ultimately leave them empty. (Fiction. 12 & up)

School Library Journal (Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)

Gr 7-10 Ben Byron, 15, is angry. Just two months after the death of his mother in a car accident, his dad, crushed by the loss of his wife, sells their house and small boat and uses the money to buy the Chrysalis , a 30-foot sailboat. He uproots Ben and two younger sons for a yearlong tour of the Bahamas. Life goes as smoothly as it can for a while, despite the tension, chores, and close quarters. But one morning everything changestheir father disappears. When the boat heads into a terrible storm, Ben must act. Throughout the novel, the protagonist's emotions ring true. Although the sailing details are a bit technical at times, Herlong spins an engrossing, suspenseful tale of survival. Melyssa Malinowski, Kenwood High School, Baltimore, MD