Dare The Wind by Tracey Fern

This beautifully illustrated picture book tells the story of an unusual woman, Eleanor Prentiss, who (along with her husband as captain) set a record for the fastest journey from New York City, around the tip of Cape Horn and up to San Francisco. Generations ahead of her time, Eleanor Prentiss's determination to forge her own path in the world make her a role model for young women today.

Eleanor or Ellen as she was often called,  was born in 1814 in Marblehead, Massachusetts to John Prentiss, who was a captain of a coastal trading schooner. Prentiss taught his daughter how to navigate a schooner, perhaps because he did not have a son. Ellen spent many years navigating her father's merchant ships on voyages to China.

Josiah  and Ellen sailed together which was not unusual for husband and wife at in early 1800s. However, what was unusual was while Josiah was the captain, Ellen served as navigator on his ships. Perkins sailed The Oneida, a ship belonging to the firm, Grinnell and Minturn, in the China Trade.

The early 1800's were an exciting time with much progress in faster modes of travel. In 1849, transatlantic steamships like the SS Pacific with the American Collins Line were making the passage from New York to Liverpool in ten days. And just a day after the Perkins arrived in San Francisco, the first train travelled from New York City to Albany in five hours.

In 1849, the California Gold Rush began and thousands of American's traveled to the state to seek their fortune. Gold hunters could travel over the continental United States by wagon or horse or they could sail around Cape Horn at the tip of South America and up to California in the fast clipper ships. Many chose the latter because it was often a shorter trip, often only taking half the time. The shorter time meant more profits.


The owners of the Flying Cloud hired Josiah Perkins and his navigator wife Ellen. They made the journey from New York City to San Francisco in a remarkable 89 days and 21 hours. It was a journey that normally took at least four months or more. This record was due not only to the excellent design of the Flying Cloud, but also to the sharp navigation skills of Eleanor who had spent years studying ocean currents and meteorological data. Eleanor was a student of Mathew Fontaine Maury who had compiled the recorded ocean currents and weather conditions from the old log books of sailors. He then developed trade wind and storm and rain charts to aid navigators such as Eleanor Prentiss. Eleanor used this information to aid in the navigation around the tip of Cape Horn and up to San Francisco.

Tracey Fern recounts Eleanor's remarkable story in Dare The Wind and specifically her record setting voyage to San Francisco in 1851. Fern's account captures Ellen's daring spirit and determination to succeed in what was then solely a man's domain - the sea. The intensity of Eleanor's desire to live her life at sea, doing what she loved, navigating a ship is captured from the very beginning of the book.

"Ellen Prentiss had always felt the sea tug at her heart, strong as a full-moon tide. Her papa said that was because she was born with saltwater in her veins."

Fern's vivid prose is further enhanced by Emily Arnold McCully's gorgeous watercolour illustrations that convey both the movement and beauty of the sea and the sleek clipper ship. The back of this picture book contains a detailed Author's Note on Eleanor Prentiss as well as a short glossary of nautical terms.

Dare The Wind has recently been named an ALSC American Library Association 2015 Notable Children's Book.

Tracey Fern attended Harvard College where she studied history and biology and then studied law at Boston College Law School. She spent several years working as a real estate lawyer but it wasn't until she had her own children that she decided to try writing books.

Book Details:
Dare The Wind by Tracey Fern
New York: Margaret Ferguson Books Farrar Straus Giroux 2015

Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker

Sixteen year old Clementine Williams has done something unforgivable and she's hoping her family's summer cruise will help her forget the terrible end to her sophomore year.

Clementine along with her parents and her ten year old sister, Olive, are sailing part of what is known as "The Loop" in their new forty-two foot Catalina three-cabin Pullman named The Possibility. This is a sailing route that encompasses the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River down to Gulf, across to Florida and up the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.

Clem's family doesn't know what exactly has happened to her in the last two weeks of school, but they know that Clem is upset and withdrawn. As their sailing voyage begins, her family tries to help Clem by encouraging her to be with her family. On their stop at the marina in Peoria, Clem is sent to get groceries. At the marina shop she collides with a tall, blue-eyed, redhead boy named James Townsend causing him to spill his basket of bananas. They have a brief, humorous conversation but Clem resolves not to get involved with him. She also meets an elderly couple at this marina, named Ruth and George. These three people end up helping Clem work through what has happened to her.

Clem's narrative alternates between describing what is currently happening in her life as her family sails part of The Loop, and flashbacks of what happened between her and her best friend, Amanda during her sophomore year at Bishop Heights High School. Readers will quickly guess that the trouble involved a boy named Ethan.

Clem believes that because of what she has done, she is a bad person and that no one will ever like her. Because of her fear of how others will judge her, at first Clem decides she will not do anything to encourage James. However this doesn't really work because Clem and James' parents form a friendship that results in the two families spending a lot of time together as they both sail the Loop. But both Clem and James are keeping secrets, Clem about what happened between her and Amanda, and James about his family.

As Clem's relationship with James develops, she begins to put into perspective what happened, to evaluate the meaning of friendship, and also to realize that she is not the only one to blame for what happened.

Discussion  

Unbreak My Heart is about one girl's journey to self-forgiveness and about dealing with the mistakes of  youth. Various characters give their perspective on what happened between Clem and Amanda and readers ultimately have to decide how they feel about what happened. Clem also considers the reality of her friendship with Amanda, how it is changing as they approach college, and how this might have affected Amanda.

The true strength of this novel is in the characters and their relationships with one another. Young adult literature is often plagued by what is known as the "parent problem" where a young person is left to fend for themselves because mom and/or dad are experiencing serious problems or absent. Walker doesn't take this approach however, instead opting to give her young protagonist a caring family who are willing to support her and show her unconditional love through a troubled period in her life. Clem's parents are willing to give her space and time to work through whatever is bothering her and they don't pry.

Clem's younger sister, Olive is an endearing character, who looks up to Clem and helps her put things in perspective. Clem describes Olive as her "family's little adult", having an attitude and the insight of a much older person. Olive serves to remind Clem of her good points and why she is not a bad person. And in fact the way Clem treats her much younger sister is proof that she is not a bad person. She is kind to her and lets her hang out with her when her friendship with James begins.

The relationship Clem has with James is very different from what she had with Ethan. James is upbeat, kind and more sensitive as to how Clem feels. He recognizes that Clem is deeply saddened by something and it surprises Clem when she discovers that he knows this about her. Ethan, on the other hand, never seemed to clue into how Clem was feeling or if he did, he ignored them.

One drawback of this novel is the message conveyed through the elderly couple, Ruth and George. Clem assumes that they have been married for years only to learn that George left his wife of 30 years to be with Ruth  because "it was meant to be". Ruth tells Clem and Olive that their relationship is "true love" implying that only "true love" matters, and that the vows we make to one another can be discarded, making them in effect, pointless. Ruth dishonours George's wife, Linda, by calling her his "girlfriend" rather than acknowledging that Linda was in fact, his wife of 30 years. At the end of all this, young, impressionable Olive concludes that none of this matters, as long as they are happy together. It is a sad dismissal of the value of fidelity and the promise to love even when the desire to do so is no longer easy to come by.

Overall, Unbreak My Heart is an engaging read that draws the reader in from the very beginning through the desire to learn what really happened between Clem and Amanda. Well written and evenly paced, this is a very good story.

Book Details:
Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker
New York: Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers   2012
231 pp.