Fama, Elizabeth. Overboard. Laurel Leaf, 2005. ISBN 978-0553494365 158 pp. $

****

I haven’t been able to focus much on my books lately. Maybe it’s because it is the summer, maybe I’m just distracted, I don’t know. But, I finally found a good one and finished it between last night and this afternoon. Elizabeth Fama’s Overboard is about Emily Slake. Her parents are both doctors who travel the world. Emily is 14 and has spent more time in foreign hospitals in her life than anywhere else. Her parents are often so distracted and absorbed in their work that they don’t pay too much attention to their daughter. The Slake’s are stationed in Indonesia as the story begins and Emily is really feeling neglected by her parents.

When a young girl at the hospital dies, Emily feel responsible and decides to run away. Without telling anyone, she jumps on a ferry headed to another island where her Uncle is stopping by. After hours at the dock, the ferry finally departs. An hour later, the ferry tilts to a really odd angle and then begins to sink. The passengers panic, life jackets are thrown about and before Emily knows it, she is tossed into a storage bin and locked in. As the water level in the bin rises she kicks and kicks at the door, trying to escape and barely able to breathe. That is only the first of the dangers she encounters in this suspense novel.

I also just read Morality for Beautiful Girls, the third novel in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. I love these books!