Review: The Raft by SA Bodeen

The Raft by S.A. Bodeen

Published: August 21, 2012

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Pages: 231

Received: borrowed from library

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Robie is an experienced traveler. She’s taken the flight from Honolulu to the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times. When she has to get to Midway in a hurry after a visit with her aunt in Hawaii, she gets on the next cargo flight at the last minute. She knows the pilot, but on this flight, there’s a new co-pilot named Max. All systems are go until a storm hits during the flight. The only passenger, Robie doesn’t panic until the engine suddenly cuts out and Max shouts at her to put on a life jacket. They are over miles of Pacific Ocean. She sees Max struggle with a raft.

And then . . . she’s in the water. Fighting for her life. Max pulls her onto the raft, and that’s when the real terror begins. They have no water. Their only food is a bag of Skittles. There are sharks. There is an island. But there’s no sign of help on the way.

I was on a bit of a deserted island kick and when I saw this book on the shelf at my local library about a plane crash in the ocean, I knew I needed to read it.

Robie's story is quite different from the other deserted island/plane crash books I've read, but it completely had me after the first chapter. Robie is a seasoned traveller on the cargo planes that bring her back and forth between Hawaii and Midway Atoll, but this time is different. She's left her aunts place in Hawaii in a hurry, no one knows she is hoping on this cargo flight and the weather is not her friend this time.

As the weather takes a toll on the plane and the new pilot Max shoves a life jacket at her, she knows things are about to change forever. She panics and Max grabs her and throws her out of the plan after the life raft. Shock sets in and makes her angry for what he did, but then she realizes that her just saved her life.

The story moves quickly and is written in a way that you feel all of Robie's feelings and thoughts regardless of how irrational they may seem. Between a very real threat of sharks, a hole in the raft and her own paralysis of getting in the water again, Robie has many things to fear. She has to push those fears aside to make it through this alive. 

She is stronger and more resourceful than she realizes. Time is lost and thoughts are jumbled. But will her aching body and her tired mind cause hallucinations to get the better of her? Will she be able to survive in the raft or on a deserted island without the comforts of home? 

  

It's a quick and entertaining read. 

About the Author:

Stephanie is the award-winning author of the Elizabeti's Doll series of picture books, as well as several others. Her first young adult novel The Compound was released in 2008 and recently won the Maryland BlackEyedSusan Award, Nebraska Golden Sower Award, and the Indiana Young Hoosier Award. Her second YA The Gardener was featured on Good Morning America as a Best Summer Teen Read, and her third YA The Raft was recently named a 2013 Tayshas list title. The Fallout will be released September 2013 from Feiwel and Friends/MacMillan.

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