Substitution for "Sailing Alone Around the World"

I actually had the same question years ago, and I still don’t really care for the book, I sold it.  Here are the responses I got to my post (not sure how to link it right now:)

Don’t know the book – but if you want a good geography book with sailing, I reccommend Seabird by Holling C. Holling.

My son (7) loved it.

Another book we did for geography (very light on it) was 33 Multicultural Tales to Tell.  It has a folk story from various places.  We’d read the story, and look at a map and find the place it was from.  It wasn’t a geography book per-se, but my kids did learn a lot about geography looking up the places.

There are other good Holling C Holling books that are great for portions of the U.S. geography.  We read Paddle to the Sea last year – my son loved that one too. It is around the Great Lake Region (which was nice for us in Canada) – and there is Tree in the Trail and Minn of the Mississippi that we are planning to read in the future.

We are finishing up module 5 this month, and we’ve been reading “Stowaway” by Karen Hesse.  We tried “Sailing Alone….” for a bit at the beginning of the year and it wasn’t working well for us.  It simply did not hold the interest of any of the kids (10yo, 11yo, 12yo) and, I have to admit, I had a hard time loving it.

“Stowaway” is written as a journal of Nicholas Young, age 11, who runs away from his apprenticeship with a butcher in London in 1768 and stows away on Captain James Cook’s ship, the H.M.S. Endeavour.  It is based on research into Captain Cook’s first voyage to discover new land for the King of England.  The journey takes them along the eastern coast of South America, around Cape Horn, and on to New Zealand and Australia.  It is an enjoyable read, and the journal entries often include latitudinal and longitudinal readings.  The author gives a note that tells how to adjust these readings to reflect how longitude is recorded in modern times so the reader may locate and track the ship’s route on a map.  It’s fascinating and fun.

suzukimom: Wow that sounds like a great book, and would make a fantastic Google Lit Trip.

I would second the recommendation of Stowaway.  We wanted to love Sailing Alone Around the World, but it didn’t happen, so we switched to Stowaway.  A much better fit for us.  My kids were about 10 through 12 at the time.

I also agree that Stowaway is better for older children.  For my younger children, we use “Families of..” videos from the library for whatever country we are studying.  They really enjoy those.  They also like looking at the Hungry Planet, or Material World books, and the optional books from Visits To..