Monserrat Urena (Children's Literature)
Ben had a good life. He had loving parents. He and his younger brothers lived in a nice house near a lake. Then, their mother dies in a car crash, and their father, a college professor, cannot cope with the loss. Distracted and in pain, Ben’s father rarely thinks about what his sons are going through, and Ben must step in to take care of his younger siblings even though he is not yet sixteen. Their father’s behavior worsens over time. It all comes to a head when he suddenly announces that he has sold the family home. He has decided that they are going to sail throughout the Bahamas. The trip is a pressure cooker of events. The father’s emotional instability comes to the forefront, yet the family retains elements of tenderness and, on occasion, happiness. The great climax of the book comes when the boys are stranded on a deserted island without their father. This is the author’s first book and is an admirable piece of fiction. Unfortunately, the literary techniques used in crafting the story are all too visible. The story feels rushed in its attempt to reach some inevitable goal. I am still wondering what it is? The ending is surprising in its apparent ease after so turbulent a plot. The hero has a magical memory that suddenly appears in his mind, and it quickly makes any and all previous tensions null and void. I cannot recommend this work, but I cannot disregard the potential that this writer holds. 2008, Penguin Group, $16.99. Ages 12 to 18.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2008 (Vol. 76, No. 18))
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. 2008, Viking, 240p, $16.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 12 up. © 2008 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, November 2008 (Vol. 62, No. 3))
Fifteen-year-old narrator Ben has hit the age at which a smart, able teenager might well begin to resist the do-it-because-I-said-so approach of an authoritarian father. Now that his mother has died, though, his father is less authoritarian than distraught, and Dad has sold the house, bought a fixer-upper sailboat, and packed his three sons up for a year cruising around the Caribbean, a sure recipe for familial disaster. Each boy deals with Dad and bereavement in his own way: Ben, through argument and defiance; eleven-year-old Dylan, through quiet withdrawal into his fascination with nature; little Gerry, by trying to be agreeable and hanging onto his security blanket for all he’s worth. Dad persists in pushing his sons almost beyond their limits in learning the finer points of sailing, but it’s Dad whose moment of carelessness puts the entire family in peril. Dad is swept overboard at night, and when Ben awakes in the morning, he finds himself in charge of the ailing boat and his brothers, with no way of tracking where their father went over, and no way of determining exactly where they are. Shipwreck actually comes as a blessing in disguise, and the boys muddle along reasonably well on an island while hoping for rescue. Dylan takes a fall, though, and when his injured leg becomes infected, Ben must take aggressive, drastic action to find help. Herlong’s tale begins with the basic plot points of Craig Moodie’s Seaborn (BCCB 9/08)—the loss of a mother, a strained father/son relationship, a disaster at sea—but Herlong makes the most of the three boys’ characters, each exceptionally well developed here, to make this as much a novel of brotherhood as a sea story. Ben’s shaky rapprochement with his father skirts an easy, blissful ending and leaves readers to consider that the fraternal bond may be as strong, if not stronger, than the paternal Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2008, Viking, 283p., $16.99. Grades 6-10.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 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. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2008, Viking, 284pp, 16.99. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.