Storm Warriors

Should you believe in the impossible? On Pea Island, North Carolina, when ships wandered into danger along the coastline there was no Coast Guard to save them. But there were a crews of brave men along the shore who would risk their lives to save the lives of the sailors in distress. One of these crews was composed of African-American surf men who would risk their lives to rescue crews from ships caught in fierce storms off the Carolina coast. Twelve year old Nathan admires these men greatly and dreams of being a surf man one day. He is growing up in a world in which he sees a young black man hanging from a tree and he hears the stories of his grandfather's life as a slave. The men around him have earned a place in the world of the surf men. But his father discourages him, telling him he's too young to truly understand the full truth about this challenging life. Could there be a place for Nathan in the world maybe even beyond being a crewman? There is debris from the ocean and debris from the past all around him. But Nathan is finding a path for himself that is headed toward the seemingly impossible. This is a wonderful work of historical fiction that shares the legacy of these brave men with us, as it reveals some of the obstacles in the path of a young African-American who is trying to figure out his path to manhood in 1895. 158 pages Ages 11-14