Booksneeze Review: Unsinkable by Abby Sunderland and Lynn Vincent

*I received this book for free through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program in exchange for my unbiased review.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book "Unsinkable, A Young Woman's Courageous Battle on the High Seas" written by Abby Sunderland and Lynn Vincent.

Normally, I prefer to read fiction, however, I enjoyed this book cover to cover. The authors wrote it from three different "voices" as indicated by icons (described in the authors' note in the beginning), Abby's voice, a Narrator's voice and those involved in Abby's rescue effort's voice.

While reading "Unsinkable" I appreciated the Sunderland family's faith and that prayer was a regular part of their daily lives.

Although Abby is a teenager (just 16) she showed great maturity before and during her attempt to circumnavigate the earth. I was constantly amazed at her positive attitude and "get it done" attitude throughout the book. During one particularly hard night of sailing, she described the situation this way:
"Whenever frustration started sniffing around inside me, I shut it off like a light switch. I am where I am and this is what it is, I told myself. You can either suck it up and work the problem or hand steer to the nearest land."

I also appreciated Abby's attitude toward handling the publicity and media attention her trip gathered. She handled criticism without bitterness or anger towards those who said it. I appreciated her answering questions from reporters with honesty. Abby realized she could not please everyone and did not try. She chose to focus on what she was best at: sailing.

Throughout the book, Abby speaks about her family and parents with great respect. It sounds like she has a great relationship with her dad and mom. Her parents raised her to be independent and hard working.

I loved this paragraph towards the middle of the book:
"It seems like people my age are over-protected today. Even to the point where a lot of parents refuse to put their kids in the position to make important decisions, to aspire to great things, because they don't want to put them in a position to fail. I mean, there are all these minivans driving down the road with bumper stickers that say, 'My child was Student of the Week at Smith Elementary,' or whatever. But guess what? Every child gets to be student of the week. It's like we, as kids, aren't expected or required to reach higher, to be different, to do anything special in order to get some kind of warm, fuzzy award. It's just weird."

I love that type of attitude toward raising children.

When Abby comes home, she realizes, "I am not the same person who set sail from Marina del Rey on January 23, 2010." She learned from her mistakes and grew up during those months at sea.

She goes on to say, "Alone with myself at sea for months, I learned who I am. I made some mistakes, but survived them and learned. I am twelve thousand miles wiser, twelve thousand miles more resilient, and I have twelve thousand miles more faith in God."

Thank you Abby Sutherland and Lynn Vincent for sharing this story with the world. Thank you for showing that young people can do amazing things and that God can use their stories to impact people all over the world. Even though Abby's attempt at circumnavigating the world solo unassisted was not technically a success, she is proof that God can use even those "failures" for good.

I would highly recommend this book to any reader. Although this is a book about a Christian girl raised by Christian parents, it is not "overloaded" with religious talk. Her faith shines through as she describes her days at sea, but not in a way that even a non-believer would find offensive.