Synopses & Reviews
"It was April, and the year was 1939. I was nine years old, and my mom and dad and I were leaving our home in Manhattan to visit England and France. In those days, few people traveled by airplane. They sailed across the Atlantic in huge ships called ocean liners. I couldn't stop thinking about it."
So begins this well-crafted chapter book recounting the adventures of the boy Paul, traveling from New York to France on the legendary ocean liner Normandie.
Unlike the tragic stories of the passengers on the ill-fated Titanic, this one is filled with the pleasures and novelties of life at sea, with friends made and several unexpected adventures for Paul to retell for the rest of his life. As he finishes his tale with nostalgia for that lost world, the reader will share his memories and know something of the look, feel and smell of the ship, and the excitement of being a passenger on the great ocean liner in its glory days.
Review
Part travelogue, part nostalgic ramble through the heyday of great ocean liners, this story shoehorns a fair amount of information into a simple chapter book about a five-day trip across the Atlantic. ...readers will know that this is a voyage in grand style. MacDonald's carefully researched water colors (at least one per spread) provide charming period window dressing, and the narrative offers an appealing glimpse of a bygone shipboard life.
Publishers Weekly