The Raft

This is a survival book about a character who survives by pure luck and through help from another, and not at all by her own wit or skills. She is an annoying teenager who irritated us for the entire book. She does nothing to help the situation! It does have a study guide, which was nicely done. We thought that 8-10 year olds might enjoy this book than young teens.

As an online tutor, i try to find books that my middle school students want to read. My bias was that this book would be sappy and cater to the lowest common denominator of young adolescent girls. Boy, was I off base, "The Raft", by S.A.Bodeen, is extremely well-written and doesn't indulge in any of the usual cliches about adolescent girls. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for an alternative for their teen daughtersin contrast to the standard the depiction of middle school girls as boy crazy, ditzy, nerdy, etc.

Okay, so I was trying to figure out why I liked this book. On a certain level it was very simple-even at times annoyingly simple. Girl gets in plane crash and has to survive in ocean and on island for 14-ish days and then is rescued-hooray. Simple...really simple...and while it was a very traumatic experience, it wasn't a survival story where the whole shape of a person is changed, cause it all happens just so quickly. But, S.A. Bodeen can write the socks of a story...this book was so compelling...I started reading it and could not put it down until I came to the last page. So there you have it. S.A. Bodeen is a very engaging writer and I salute her for that!

I remember reading Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor in junior high and being terrified. I don't want to bob around at sea with no idea what was going to happen to me, slowly going mad by dehydration. My husband is terrified of the ocean, and while I mock him for it endlessly, I can see where his fear comes from, especially after reading The Raft by S.A. Bodeen.Robie lives on the Midway Atoll with her biologist parents. People think it is cool to live on an atoll, but when you are the only teenager, there is rarely an internet connection, and the only food and movies you have are the ones you schlepped over on a limited space cargo plane, you lose sight of the "coolness" quickly. So after sometime in Hawaii, she makes an impromptu decision to return home ahead of schedule. She secures a space on a cargo plane with a pilot she knows and trusts and his new copilot, Max. All is going well until an unexpected storm sends the plane hurtling into the ocean.While Max manages to throw her out of the plan and they get into the raft, all is not well and safe. bobbing around the ocean in a raft is the furthest thing from Robie's bucket list, and now, without out food or fresh water, surviving the plane crash may have been a wasted effort. Max won't even respond to her most of the time, but his stories are comforting at least. Unfortunately, they can't survive on comfort, and as the days roll on, their chances of making it off the raft in one piece become smaller, especially when sharks are beneath them, fishing is pretty much impossible, and there is no rain in sight. Will Robie live to see civilization, or will she succumb to the sea?Here is the thing about S.A. Bodeen. She knows how to throw a twist you didn't see coming. In The Compound, she threw a twist that changed the ENTIRE intent of the book and had my head spinning. In this book, the twist isn't nearly as large, but it is pretty significant. Enough so to make you stop and say, "Hey! You got me!" That makes for a fun and entertaining book. Robie is an intereting character because her little acts of rebellion, like piercing her nose, pale in comparison to her will to survive. I don't think I could have done what she did to stay alive. You will like Robie from the start of the book and will find yourself cheering for her straight through to the last page.Since this is a short book and is quite interesting, I will most likely keep it on my shelf for kids who struggle to get something to hold their attention. The monkey wrench in the middle will hold them through and the idea of surviving is great material for discussions. I didn't think the story was mind-blowing, but it was good entertainment and will appeal to a good deal of my students. The writing is neither simplistic nor intricate, so this is a perfect book for your average young adult reader. Still, I am impressed how Bodeen can get me every time!

Dear S.A. Bodeen,I want her to know that “The Raft” was an amazing book. My favorite part of the book is when Robbie freaked out on having to jump out of the plane. My favorite plot of the book is the narrative hook, technical climax, and the falling action. I enjoyed the narrative hook because she introduced Robbie well and gets people wanting to know what goes on in her life. The technical climax is also good because it's the turning point in the story and they is when Robbie is flying and then ends up having to leave the plane so that was a good twist. The character I liked the most was Robbie the main character in the book. She was a very believable character because he was in tough situations. She inspires me because she was a very hardworking person doing all she can in the raft to survive. The author's style was very good because it was adventurous. In the book she puts in tons of irony and one was situational irony were I would know what was going to happen but the characters did not. For example, I knew that she was going to have to jump out of the plane but she didn't. Also, another type of style she used was POV and in the book she used first person point of view showing Robbie's thoughts, feelings, and actions while in the book. Finally, in the book she uses a little personification to show the water and other nonliving things that act like humans. Finally, the theme of this book is to never give up and keep trying. I learned that if you give it your all and try the best you will succeed. The life lesson i got from this story is to keep trying even through the hardest times.By the end of the book, I learned that if you don't give up you will most likely succeed. Thank you for this adventurous book. I hope you created more books like it.Sincerely Ashton Williams,