We always enjoy Tougias' young reader adaptations of at-sea rescues. Even though, logically, you know at the outset things can't possibly end well for all involved, you're never sure who will die (or even if they will) and that makes for a can't-put-down, nail-biting read.
This one chronicles the attempts to help the oil tanker, Global Hope, as it flounders off the shore of Salem Sound in Massachusetts during the Great Blizzard of 1978.
The U.S. Coast Guard sends its boats and tries to send a helicopter to help on the ferocious seas. A local boat captain who frequently helps the Guard on rescues also responds to the call, Captain Frank Quirk.
Tougias' careful reconstruction, boiled down from hours of tapes of actual radio conversations the night of the rescue, is simply amazing, and the young readers' adaptation the perfect mix of fact and spell-binding suspense.
A fantastic non-fiction read!
