Deborah Hopkinson

One small kit­ten learns about the great big world as he set sail with his fel­low ship­mates, ani­mal and human, in this his­tor­i­cal fic­tion inter­me­di­ate reader.

Trim has learned a lot about life at sea. He under­stands the dai­ly rou­tines and the respon­si­bil­i­ties of each crew mem­ber, and he knows many of the ways to help.

But one day he ven­tures out­side and expe­ri­ences some­thing new and scary: a storm is brew­ing. As the wind whips his whiskers and the sky grows dark, Trim’s heart beats like a drum. All his friends are doing new things: prepar­ing the sails, clos­ing any open­ings on deck, and secur­ing loose items.

Pen­ny and Jack explain each step to Trim and he is com­fort­ed to learn all the ways to pre­pare for a storm.

And then he hears a strange noise com­ing from the lifeboats. There he finds Wis­dom, a young alba­tross who is also expe­ri­enc­ing her first storm. Can these two small crea­tures help each oth­er ride out a storm and make a fright­en­ing expe­ri­ence a lit­tle less scary?