Northwind by Gary Paulsen

In the style of the masterful Hatchet, this is another high-stakes middle grade from Gary Paulsen about a boy on the knife's edge between life and death where raging seas meet a northern wilderness.

 

This stunning historical adventure, set along a rugged coastline centuries ago, does for the sea what Hatchet does for the woods, as it relates the story of a young person’s battle to stay alive against the odds. When a deadly plague decimates his fishing village, an orphan named Leif is forced to take to the water in a cedar canoe. He flees northward, following a wild, fjord-riven shore, navigating from one danger to the next, unsure of his destination. Yet the deeper into his journey he paddles, the closer he comes to his truest self as he connects to "the heartbeat of the ocean . . . the pulse of the sea." With hints of Nordic mythology and an irresistible narrative pull, Northwind is Gary Paulsen at his captivating, adventuresome best.