Boreas Series

Boreas Series 

Boreas en de zeven zeeën / Boreas and the Seven Seas (2015) – Meet twelve-year-old Boreas, whose life takes an unexpected turn when his parents decide to sail around the world–for three whole years! And yes, you read that right. Three years on a sailboat. With Mom and Dad.

Boreas is not thrilled. Who would be? He’d much rather be hanging out with friends, playing soccer, and starting junior high after summer break. But there’s no escaping the family’s big adventure. The plan is set: they’ll board the Argo, an old First 42 sailboat, and set sail across the globe.

At first, Boreas is bored out of his mind. All he sees for miles is endless water. But as the days roll by, his adventure takes some wild turns. From a heart-pounding encounter with a young refugee’s raft off the coast of France, to a high-speed tractor race on the island of Sark, and even a spine-tingling stowaway situation aboard a Spanish fishing boat–Boreas soon realizes this journey isn’t just about sailing; it’s about the incredible, sometimes scary, always thrilling discovery of the world.

Get ready for an unforgettable ride filled with friendship, courage, and adventure on the high seas!

Longlisted Kinderjury Award 2015

Ploegsma Children’s Books, hardcover, ISBN 978-90-216-7438-4
Noordhoff Educational Publishers, school edition Vroege Lijsters, paperback, ISBN 978-90-010-2116-0

Boreas en de duizend eilanden / Boreas and the Thousand Islands (2016) – Before crossing the Atlantic, Boreas and his family spend three months on La Gomera, a Canary Island, where Boreas attends school to practice Spanish and learn the island’s whistling language, Silbo Gomero.

The three-week Atlantic crossing is a wild ride–endless doldrums, fierce winds, and unexpected adventures. Boreas learns to fish like a pro, and even gets locked into a locker while trying to move a sail. They’re hit by an overnight swarm of flying fish, adding to the chaos.

But as the days stretch into weeks, with nothing but the endless blue of the ocean and his parents for company, even Boreas’s adventurous spirits begins to fray. The isolation is starting to get to him–until a twist of fate brings an unexpected friend into his life. Enter Gale, a fearless American girl who’s solo-circumnavigating the globe. After a brutal storm, Gale is in need of help, and the family helps her to repair her boat, sparking thoughts in Boreas about sailing alone someday.

In the Caribbean, adventure awaits. Celebrating New Year’s Eve on a deserted island with new friends, Boreas hatches a plan to free lobsters his parents are about to cook. Things get even more exciting again, when Boreas has to rescue his father from a barracuda. In the Bahama’s, Boreas’s mom sends him to do laundry, when his attempt to test a golf cart ends in disaster, with the cart–and the laundry–ending up in the water. Dad is furious and Boreas fears being sent back to Amsterdam. But when he sees his parents searching for flight tickets, Boreas realizes the Argo is his true home now.

Ploegsma Children’s Books, 2016, hardcover, ISBN 978-90-216-7568-8
Ploegsma Children’s Books, 2021, paperback, ISBN 978-90-216-8199-3

Boreas en de vier windstreken / Boreas and the Four Winds  – After crossing seven seas and a thousand islands, Boreas finally arrives in the United States, eager to explore this vast new world–until comes – until he stands face to face with the perilous predators that roam around free.
After the United States, they sail to Cuba, the Cayman Islands and Colombia, before they pass the Panama Canal to the Pacific Ocean. From the Galapagos Islands they set sail again to their next port of call: Polynesia. At least, if global warming doesn’t mess up everything, because where did that typhoon come from? And how on earth do you navigate if you don’t even have a compass left…?

Ploegsma Children’s Books, 2017, hardcover, ISBN 978-90-216-7720-0
Ploegsma Children’s Books, 2022, paperback, ISBN 978-90-216-8363-8

Boreas en de vijftien vrienden / Boreas and the Fifteen Friends  – Are you still friends if you haven’t seen each other for ages? Boreas and his parents have been traveling around the world for 600 days now. Leafing through his logbook, Boreas’s eye catches all the names he’s written down: Aziz in Morocco, Ed in New York, Amélie in Saint Martin… He made friends in every corner of the world, and he meets even more. Like Kirsten, who sails with them from Hawaii to Tahiti and teaches him Polynesian navigation. Meanwhile, they try to find a solution for the plastic soup. After Tahiti the family sails on to New Zealand, Australia, and Bali. And then it seems the end of the trip is in sight and they set sail for the Netherlands again. Or not? Because: pirates? Real pirates…?!

Longlisted Kinderjury Award 2018

Ploegsma Children’s Books, 2018, hardcover, ISBN 978-90-216-7876-4
Ploegsma Children’s Books, 2021, paperback, ISBN 978-90-216-8209-9

REVIEWS

Boreas en de zeven zeeën / Boreas and the Seven Seas

“Boreas’s story is informative and thrilling and makes you forget at which beach you are. You experience the waves and the wind as if you are there, and you feel Boreas’ doubts after he starts seeing the fun part of traveling. Action, drama, bantering and mortal fear. It’s all in there. And breathlessness, but that’s mainly with the reader. Because you want to read this book in one go.
It doesn’t matter whether or not you like sailing or traveling, if you’re a boy or a girl, a man or a woman. No one will regret choosing this book.” — Nelly Hofman, Boekenbijlage 

“Great about this book is the adventurous voice. The lapping of waves, the nightly tingling of boats in a port, the panic at sea when the wind hurls the boat to a broach. It’s like you are there and feel the wind pull your hair.” — 4 stars, Annemarie Terhell, Kidsweek

“This is a true travel book; you feel like you’re sailing along as you read it. You learn a lot about sailing and life on board a ship. So if you’re not going away this summer, this is your chance! — Leesplein (Dutch Library Association)

“It’s a good choice to break the journey into multiple books and this first one definitely asks for more. The sailing trip is described so well that you can almost taste the salt of the sea on your lips. The story brims from adventure, both at sea and on the shore. The family rescues a drowning boy in the English Channel, someone falls overboard, Boreas enters a thrilling tractor race and he and Merel accidentally become stowaways aboard a Spanish fishing trawler and end up at the ocean. In addition, Boreas offers with his logbook story lots of information about sailing without compromising the story’s pace.” — Leesbevordering in de klas (Reading Promotion in the Classroom)

Boreas en de duizend eilanden / Boreas and the Thousand Islands

“Just like in the first book, the author knows how to bring the journey around the world realistically: not just the romantic dream is narrated, but also the loneliness, the dangers and the unpredictability:

“It is wonderful to be free, but at the same time it’s not, because sometimes I really like it if I know in advance what’s going to happen, like the past two months on La Gomera (…) I like knowing that I will go to school the next day and see my friends, that I can play soccer after school or can go to the beach to swim.” (page 20)

Despite that, this is first and foremost a book for daydreaming. A wonderful series that will spark every reader’s love for traveling!” — Leesbevordering in de klas (Reading Promotion in the Classroom)

“Looking through the eyes of Boreas, it is as if the reader joins him aboard: flying fish, the heat, sailing with strong winds or without wind, night watch, the amounts of repair work, and the monotony … A delightful book for adventurous children ten years and up.” — NBD Biblion (Dutch Library Services/Biblion)

“An adventurous story full of lapping waves, nightly jingling of masts, and panic during fierce winds.” — Recommended reading by the Dutch Reading Foundation, in Lezen (Reading Magazine)

Boreas en de vier windstreken / Boreas and the Four Winds

Sprinkled in between his [Boreas’s] blood-curdling adventures are sailing tips, logbook snippets and photos. Action-packed and sneakily informative – a delight for adventurous kids.” — Recommended reading, Kidsproof.nl

“Of course, it is always exciting with a series whether or not the author pulls it off to keep the story interesting. But from the first sentence on – at day 345 of the journey – you sail again with Boreas across oceans and you are pulled into his rip-roaring adventures.” — Leesbevordering in de klas (Reading Promotion in the Classroom)

Boreas en de vijftien vrienden / Boreas and the Fifteen Friends

“Just like Laura Dekker (who is mentioned in the book), he sails the ocean by himself in the final part of book. That‘s an adventure if there ever was one. How cool is it to read about a fourteen-year-old boy who travels by himself?! That is a role model that speaks to the imagination of young readers! It is a beautiful ending of this series. It leaves you behind with a head full of dreams about the journeys that, hopefully, await you, the reader!” — Leesbevordering in de klas (Reading Promotion in the Classroom)