The sea doesn't forgive. Harvey Barth learns this in the worst possible way when the brig Waldo sails into a storm off Penobscot Bay and doesn't come back whole. Harvey is just a steward, a young man far from home on a merchant vessel, when the wind shifts and the sky turns black. What follows is a harrowing battle against waves that swallow the ship whole and winds that tear everything apart. The Waldo breaks apart. The crew drowns. And somehow, impossibly, Harvey washes up alone on the rocky Maine coastline, the sole survivor of a disaster that claimed everyone he sailed with. This is survival at its most elemental: one boy, a shattered coastline, and nothing but his will to live. Oliver Optic writes with the kinetic energy of someone who understands that young readers want action, danger, and real stakes. The Coming Wave moves fast, hits hard, and never lets you forget that the ocean is older and angrier than any person who dares cross it.
