The Voyage of the Frog

by Gary Paulsen Narrated by Kerin McCue

Overview

“I am going to be cremated. I want you to take my ashes out alone on the Frog, out to sea alone, and leave me there. Take me to where you can't see land and scatter my ashes there on the water ...” 14-year-old David Alspeth is the owner of a 22-foot sailboat, an inheritance from his uncle Owen, who recently died of cancer. Uncle Owen's last request before he died was that David should take his ashes out to sea, a job David would give anything to avoid. When he finally sets sail on calm, clear evening, David feels the weight of what he must do all around him. He can't imagine life without Owen. David completes his task, but on the return trip home he is caught unawares by a freak storm. Stranded, with no compass, no radio, and only a few cans of food, it seems as if things couldn't get any worse. But they do.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Paulsen's admirers will be satisfied with his latest survival story, this time set in the open sea. The author ranges through his accustomed territory, focusing on both the actual aspects of the voyage and the wisdom brought on by one boy's isolation in the elements. David Alspeth, 14, sails into the Pacific on the 22-foot Frog to scatter the ashes of the boat's owner, his beloved uncle Owen. A freak storm leaves David adrift for days in which he encounters sharks, a near-collision with a tanker, and the awful dragging loneliness of sitting in a becalmed boat. In that tedium, however, the boy finds a relationship with the boat and the elements themselves, and when the wind returns David discovers how far he has traveled (in more than miles). A unexpected, affirmative ending closes this middle-grade book with one boy's finally knowing where he's been, and where he might be going. Ages 11-13. (Mar.)

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9A taut survival story of a 14-year-old boygrieving over his uncle's recent deathcaught at sea in a small sailboat and pushed by a storm 350 miles from home. Paulsen's spare prose offers an affecting blend of the boy's inner thoughts and keen observations of the power of nature to destroy and to heal. (Jan. 1989)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171023140
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	03/21/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged

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