I could not write for many days. Write! I could not walk or eat or even talk except to moan and wish that I were home or dead or anywhere but here aboard this ship.Twelve-year-old Celia Snow regrets the day she convinced her parents to allow her to accompany them on her father's whaling expedition in 1856. She thought it would be exciting, exotic, and thoroughly grown-up. Instead, she is terribly seasick and, even worse, homesick. But what's done is done, and Celia knows she cannot expect to see her home on land again for several years.
As the months go by, the excitement of the expedition turns the miserable voyage into a true adventure. On the day Celia sights her first whale and watches the boats row out to the hunt, she realizes that she will see and experience more aboard the Jupiter than most girls will in a lifetime. She will learn to navigate, and she will see the incredible beauty of the Sandwich Islands and feel the biting cold of the Arctic. Best of all, she will fall in love.
While life aboard ship is not easy, Celia learns everything she can about being a captain's daughter. In her heart, though, she still dreams about the day she will return home again. But when disaster strikes, Celia must gather all her courage, strength, and newfound knowledge in one desperate attempt to salvage the expedition and the lives of those she loves.
When we left New Bedford it was cold but clear, a fair wind, Papa said. Mother was in her cabin arranging things, but I wanted to be out on deck. I kept my eye on the sweet shoreline till it disappeared from me, bit by bit, till it was just a line. I held it there in my memory long after it was gone. Papa passed me his spyglass andthrough it I could see what had been lost before. Sometime in the world maybe there will be a spyglass so strong I could see not just New Bedford, but all the way back home, to you in Eastham, or even as far as our cousins in Salem, and beyond.
Books for the Teen Age 2001 (NYPL)
Review :
Celia's "fresh, bright perspective is starkly juxtaposed with the harshness of whaling life and a conniving crew. Her effervescent personality as expressed in her correspondence makes this a highly accessible work of historical fiction."-- "School Library Journal," August 2000[R]eaders who get caught up in Celia's story will want to see her home and those in Hawaii may enjoy seeing the Sandwich Islands through her eyes.-- "Booklist," April 1, 2000"[A] quietly adventurous tale of a girl torn between her love for the wild sea and the civilized land. Recommend this title to readers who enjoyed Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle or the works of Ann Rinaldi." -- "Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) ," December 2000
