Submarine Outlaw (edizione 2008)

This is an incredible adventure series. My children love Roy's novels, and they're always waiting for the next installment. And then it's a real plus that the main character is so admirable, too. You can't get much better than a story with a boy (Alfred) who travels all around the world in his own homemade submarine--with two fabulous sidekicks for crew members: a dog and a seagull! Alfred is just a great role model for children and teens. Submarine Outlaw was nominated for a Red Maple Award in Canada. It also won first prize in the Atlantic Writer's Competition. If you ask me, Roy should be winning the Forest of Reading awards (also in Canada) every year that he comes out with a new book. We never get tired of reading about Alfred's journeys! The series is a hit with my kids, that's for sure! ( )

River Odyssey, book 3 in the Submarine Outlaw series, is another testament to Roy's gift for writing great books for kids and teens. What's most interesting about this book is just how much Alfred grows as a person. The story is a bit more "localized" in that Alfred spends a good deal of time in Montreal looking for his father, (who left him after he was born), but he learns so much about himself in the process that the story never really loses its momentum. My kids loved this novel as much as its predecessors. When you look at the series as a whole, Roy's writing simply improves with each and every book! ( )

Okay, I'll admit it. I was worried about this one. Realistic fiction about a kid who, with the help of a junkyard maven, turns an oil tank into a working submarine? I'm all for fantasy, but huge suspensions of disbelief in a story that is supposed to be realistic, of the kind I thought I was going to have to make right there in the first chapter, are not my strong suit. But then Ziegfried started, matter of factly, building a submarine out of an oil tank. There are almost 80 pages of the building and testing of this submarine, a lot for a 250 page book. It makes for a slow start to the story, but not a slow start for the book. Ziegfried explains everything he's doing as he goes along, ostensibly so that Alfred will be able to handle minor repairs on his own at sea, but really so that we readers will not have to make that huge jump on our own. It's so interesting to read about all the ways he's making sure things float and sink when you want them too, and it is, to my limited mechanical knowledge, pretty realistic.

Once the submarine is built, Alfred is off! Along the way he picks up a seagull and a dog, meets a lady who lives alone on an island save her own menagerie of furry and feathered companions, rescues a family at sea, finds some treasure, and gets chased by the coastguard, navy, and excited locals. Looking back, the whole thing is a bit episodic, but while reading, the story is not the least disjointed. The connecting theme is Alfred's realization that the actions of his 14 year old self in his little tiny submarine have consequences, good and bad. Over the course of the novel he learns how to weigh his choices before rushing into a decision, who to trust to help him, and that other people (and a bird and a dog) are counting on him. Basically, during his year at sea, he grows up.

The descriptions of how the submarine worked as well as the life at sea and along the coast of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia were incredibly interesting and often beautiful. This series will be a hit with readers interested in oceanography, treasure-hunting (but not pirates), and the general way things work. I can't wait to read about Alfred's next adventure, which will take him a bit farther from home and the relative safety of the coast.

If you need another reason to read this book, the paper it is printed on is made of 100% post-consumer waste! It doesn't really have anything to do with the story, clearly, but it's definitely a practice that should be applauded!

Book source: Review copy from publisher ( )