A first-chapter book about courage, friendship, and Arctic wonders, for readers 6–13.
Your kid doesn't need another story about a shy hero who learns to feel his feelings. He needs a story where the hero steps into the cold and comes back stronger.
Hardcover, illustrated by the author, set aboard a real U.S. Navy fast-attack submarine under the polar ice. The kind of gift that stays on the shelf into adulthood.
79 pages. First-chapter-book format. Half narrative, half full-page illustration. Works for a 3rd-grade classroom or a 5th-grade advanced reader, and leaves room for a real discussion about courage afterward.
A boy and his cousin are invited aboard a U.S. Navy submarine by a Chief who served with the boy's father. Over the course of the book they learn what the sonar shack sounds like when the boat is threading ice keels overhead, why the fairwater planes do what they do, what "yellow" and "red" mean on a clearance call, and what it feels like to stand on the ice at the top of the world. They find St. Nicholas's red mailbox. They see a polar bear. They come home changed.
The book doesn't lecture. It shows a kid doing a hard thing — under the supervision of a competent adult who trusts him to handle it — and coming back a little more capable than when he left.
"Courage doesn't wait for you — it meets you out there."
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