Sudden Squall Starts Today

Beginning with today's issue, the Carroll County Comet is running an eight-part serial story entitled Sudden Squall. Newspapers all around the state are running the story, which is being sponsored by the Hoosier State Press Association Foundation (HSPA) and the Indiana State Reading Association (ISRA).

Sudden Squall is written by Avi, a Newbery Award winner. The story takes readers on a maritime adventure with unlikely heroes. The daily voyage of the Neptune, a side-paddle steam freighter that carries farm produce from New Port, N.J., to New York City, is normally routine. But one spring day in 1884, what's routine is thrown overboard. In the narrow confines of the city's crowded harbor channels, a sudden squall creates havoc. A ship collision draws Captain Bates - the Neptune's pilot - off the Neptune so he can guide one of the stricken ships to safe berth. Then his first mate becomes ill. That leaves the Neptune in the hands of his son, 14-year-old Thaddeus Bates, and his younger sister, Abigail. Thad and his sister live on the Neptune and have had some practice at the ship's wheel. But now Thad must steer the Neptune into one of the world's busiest ports. It's hard to stop a boat - much less one in tow. Besides, that squall is bearing down hard. Based on a contemporaneous report, this voyage is anything but a spring cruise.

To find activities that go along with each chapter, parents and teachers can go to the HSPA Foundation and ISRA Web sites. Also found at the Web site is a list of matching Indiana English/Language Arts Standards for most of the activities.

This week's chapter, "Thad's World," is found on page 3B. The story should appeal to fourth through eighth graders, but third graders and adults will enjoy it, too.