Every year I give the kids a new book on the first day of summer.
I picked The Great Wide Sea by M. H. Herlong out for Ben because in addition to the appealing cover and exciting storyline, the main character’s name is Ben.
He read it the first day of summer, handed it to me and said,
Mom, you’ve GOT to read this! It’s SO good!
I love it when that happens.
I took it with me on a girl trip in June and found myself dragging it along everywhere for a day trying to find out what happened to three brothers who are all alone on a sailboat after their father disappears.
I love stories where siblings have to band together and make things happen. There is constant fighting between the brothers at first, which is certainly something we can relate to around here. These brothers have to push past their frustrations with one another in order to overcome huge obstacles. That they are able to do this shows how much they actually love each other.
We passed this book around on our trip so everyone could experience the Byron brothers’ adventures at sea, and everyone loved it!
