When fourteen-year-old Abby Kate boards the train in Austin to
spend three weeks with her grandmother in Galveston, she’s full of
excitement—about the train ride and the prospect of days on the
beach, exploring Galveston with her cousin Jane, family picnics,
and her grandmother’s good food. But things go wrong even
before she gets to her grandmother’s house. Abby Kate gets off
the train briefly in Houston—and the train leaves without her.
Stranded in the railroad station, she is befriended by a man
traveling with his two sons and eventually reaches Galveston
safely.
Then word comes that Abby Kate’s young brother, Will, has
diphtheria, and she will have to stay in Galveston indefinitely.
Abby Kate is still in Galveston on September 8 when a massive
hurricane strikes the city.
At first the prospect of a storm is exciting. But as Abby Kate
takes an ill-advised trip to watch the waves crash on the beach, the
storm turns into a terrifying monster. Unable to make it back to
Grandmother Linden’s house, Abby Kate, her older cousin Ellen,
and Ellen’s friend Ian take refuge in the home of one of Ian’s
teachers. When the house falls apart, Abby Kate is on her own,
clinging to a plank in swirling waters with the wind howling
around her head.
With vivid descriptions, Julie Lake plunges the reader into the
storm right along with Abby Kate. The Galveston hurricane of
September 8, 1900, remains the worst national disaster to hit the
United States.
And Abby Kate? She’s spunky, mischievous, kind and caring,
courageous when she has to be, and absolutely irresistible!
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JULIE LAKE makes her home in Austin, Texas. This is her first
novel.
A Chaparral Book for Young Readers
