Dare the Wind: The Record-Breaking Voyage of Eleanor Prentiss and the Flying Cloud

A lively, true story about a 19th-century woman and the 15,000-mile sailing journey she navigated. . . As stimulating as sea air itself, this story will surely send the salt water coursing through the veins of its readers.

McCully's (Mirette on the High Wire) signature ink-and-watercolor illustrations bring to vivid life this picture-book biography of sailor Eleanor Prentiss. Dynamic lines and soft hues realistically depict Prentiss's role as navigator aboard her husband's clipper ship, the Flying Cloud, in 1851. Its 15,000-mile maiden voyage around Cape Horn was "racing to get passengers and cargo to the Gold Rush." An anomaly for her time, Prentiss learned the sailing ropes from her ship-captain father. Fern (Barnum's Bones) lyrically paints a picture of the journey's ups and downs, during which Prentiss pushes the ship to its limits with her more scientific, risk-taking navigation style: "The masts creaked and groaned.... Soon every twist of rope and thread of canvas was stretched taut. 'Catch me if you dare!' Ellen shouted to the wind... the sea sparkling green and white around her." From storm-tossed gray-green oceans and the white-icy waters around South America's southern tip to the tilting navigation room belowdecks, the story evokes the daring trip in all its glory, and the many perspectives of the often-majestic scenes bring readers aboard. Ages 5-9. (Feb.)

Gr 2-4--In the summer of 1851, the clipper Flying Cloud made the journey from New York City to San Francisco in a record-breaking 89 days and 21 hours despite several setbacks and dangers along the way. Much of the credit for that voyage goes to Ellen Prentiss Creesy, the ship's navigator. Based on the true story of that voyage, this book expertly describes Prentiss's early life, her love for the sea and the science of navigation, her marriage to Captain Perkins Creesy, and their remarkable accomplishment. Readers will find this fictionalized account gripping and inspiring. McCully's excellent watercolor illustrations include a number of period details and add a sense of movement and drama to the already exciting text. An author's note gives the factual background for the story, and a brief glossary serves to familiarize readers with nautical terms. This is a well-executed narrative on a topic that has not received much coverage since Armstrong Sperry's 1936 Newbery Honor book, All Sail Set: A Romance of the Flying Cloud (Winston, 1935).--Misti Tidman, Licking County Library, Newark, OH