Runaways on the Inside Passage

by Joe Upton

Overview

Young readers will thrill to this breathless story of courage and determination set in the Alaska wilderness. Abandoned by their mother in Seattle, thirteen-year-old twins Annie and David Ross enlist the help of Lars Hansen, an elderly commercial fisherman, to find their father in Alaska. In late November, when most fishing vessels are decommissioned for the winter, the trio sets out from Puget Sound in a forty-foot salmon troller for an eight-hundred-mile journey along the Inside Passage.

Pursued by the authorities as runaways, and with Lars's health failing, the three experience one adventure after another as they inch their way North, through terrifying winter storms and frightening encounters with strangers. In the process, Annie and David also make new, lasting friendships and kindle personal reserves of strength that they didn't know existed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780882405643
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	09/28/2002
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.39(w) x 7.83(h) x 1.11(d)
Age Range:	10 Years

About the Author

Upton has written about and naviagated the fishing grounds of New England, British Columbia, and Alaska.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 6-9-David and Annie Ross, 13, have been abandoned again by their mother. Instead of facing another stay in a foster home, they decide to find their father, who lives in Alaska. After convincing his old friend Lars, an elderly fisherman, to let them crew with him to Sitka, the teens must dodge the authorities who are searching for them. They set off in November, when travel through the Inside Passage is fraught with danger, hoping to reach their dad by Christmas. Early in their voyage, Lars suffers a stroke and the twins navigate the angry waters alone while caring for him. The premise of this book never reaches fruition. Only the most interested reader will be able to slog through the unexplained maritime terminology and excessive description to reach the climax. ("It was an ominous time, the kind of afternoon when the sailor yearns for the most secure of harbors, a place where islands and arms of land enfold the entering vessel, and where the wind may blow all around with great force, yet the water remains almost unrippled.") The works of Gary Paulsen and Will Hobbs better serve fans of adventure stories.-Linda B. Zeilstra, Skokie Public Library, IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Joe Upton fans, and their number is legion, will be delighted that he’s back writing about his first love, that wonderful, dangerous, beautiful, lovely country known as Southeast Alaska.”—Nor’westing
 
“Joe Upton, a commercial fisherman and noted author of ALASKA BLUES, takes us on a tour of [the Inside Passage from Seattle to Skagway]. It is a moving memory of passagemaking, an anecdotal history of the region, a pilot’s guide, an essay on nautical individualism, and a monument to a way of life that continues . . . Well written, with the rhythmic ebb and flow of all fine stories of voyaging, it is a pleasure to read.”
—Boating Books


"Upton does a wonderful job of telling a tale of adventurous proportion. This book is one that will keep children of all ages glued to each page and hanging on every word. A tale of rapids, runaways, and reality, this novel is an exciting success." –Sarah Hammond, Children’s Literature

 “Alternately exhilarating and contemplative . . . Upton’s approach underscores the powerful effect of the sea and land on those who choose to wrestle with them.”
–Booklist

“A thoughtful combination of sailing instructions, travel guide, social history and personal diary, and a convincing depiction of a waterway as cultural and geographical region.”–Writer’s Northwest
 

“Once in a while, an author who knows a good deal about a subject writes a book. In rare instances the knowledgeable author is also a fine writer, and the book achieves distinction. Joe Upton’s JOURNEYS THROUGH THE INSIDE PASSAGE is one of those happy occurrences—a book that will sweep readers along the water maze of the Inside Passage with pleasure and interest, providing entertainment and instruction in equal measure . . . The love of the sailor for the sea is evident, but the author is a sailor who reads literature and history to understand his region . . . He relates stirring tales of shipwrecks interspersed with other lively tales of adventures of himself and friends. Good stories of colorful characters at sea and on land abound . . . 
"Those who traverse Alaska’s maritime world will find Upton exciting and authentic. And armchair literary voyagers like myself will place the book high on the list of favorite maritime reading . . . A book that should never be allowed to go out of print.”—Anchorage Daily News

“Whether he writes of facing the rough waters of Queen Charlotte Sound alone or watching the sunset from an isolated settlement hacked out of the wilderness, Upton demonstrates on every page that he is a craftsman who knows how to reel in the right word and do it with no wasted effort.”—Fairbanks News-Miner

From the Publisher