Three years. One sailboat. Endless adventure.
Twelve-year-old Boreas never wanted to leave home, but now he’s crossing oceans, racing storms, meeting friends from every corner of the world, and facing flying fish, being a (not so) accidental stowaway, and even real pirates! From tropical islands to the wild oceans, this heart-pounding journey proves that the greatest adventures aren’t just about the seas and the urge to protect them, they’re about courage, friendship, and discovering how big the world, and your own bravery.
Read all about the four volumes of the original Dutch Boreas series below.
Boreas and the Seven Seas
Boreas has the worst summer ever planned. Instead of soccer, friends, and starting middle school, his parents announce they’re sailing around the world. For three years.
Life aboard the old sailboat Argo starts out boring—but not for long. Soon Boreas is rescuing a young refugee, racing tractors on a tiny island, sneaking aboard a fishing trawler, and discovering that the world is far bigger, and more surprising than he ever imagined.
Packed with adventure, danger, humor, and real-life discoveries, Boreas and the Seven Seas is a story about finding courage, making unexpected friends, and learning that the greatest adventures often begin with the words, “I don’t want to.”
Come aboard. Adventure is waiting.
Buy Boreas en de zeven zeeën (Dutch edition)
Boreas and the Thousand Islands
Crossing the Atlantic sounds exciting… until you’ve seen nothing but water for weeks.
Between wild storms, flying fish that crash onto the deck, learning to fish, and getting trapped inside a sail locker, Boreas has plenty of adventures. But the endless ocean also makes him wonder if he’ll ever see friends—or land—again.
Everything changes when his family rescues Gale, a fearless girl sailing around the world on her own. Suddenly, Boreas discovers that the biggest adventures aren’t just about crossing oceans: they’re about believing in yourself.
From stormy seas to tropical islands, Boreas and the Thousand Islands is a thrilling voyage filled with friendship, courage, laughter, and unforgettable discoveries.
Ready to cross the Atlantic? Come aboard!
Buy Boreas en de duizend eilanden (Dutch edition)
Boreas and the Four Winds
Boreas has crossed oceans and explored islands, but his biggest adventure is just beginning.
From giant cities in the United States to the jungles of Colombia, through the famous Panama Canal and on to the extraordinary Galápagos Islands, every new destination brings new surprises. But the Pacific Ocean has plans of its own. A typhoon appears out of nowhere, the compass disappears, and nothing goes the way it should.
To make it across the world’s largest ocean, Boreas will need courage, quick thinking, and a crew he can trust.
Full of breathtaking adventures, amazing wildlife, and real-life discoveries, Boreas and the Four Winds is a page-turning journey that proves the best explorers never stop learning.
The Pacific is calling. Will you answer?
Buy Boreas en de vier windstreken (Dutch edition)
Boreas and the Fifteen Friends
After 600 days at sea, Boreas has collected something even better than souvenirs: friends from all over the world.
As Argo sails from Hawaii to Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Bali, and beyond, every new destination brings another adventure. Boreas learns ancient Polynesian navigation, helps tackle the growing problem of plastic pollution, and discovers that friendship can cross every ocean.
Just when home is finally in sight, one last surprise awaits…
Pirates.
Packed with action, humor, unforgettable places, and inspiring people, Boreas and the Fifteen Friends is the exciting finale to Boreas’s epic voyage around the world.
One last adventure. Climb aboard!
Buy Boreas en de vijftien vrienden (Dutch edition)
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)
Longlisted Kinderjury Award 2015
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)
Longlisted Kinderjury Award 2018
Book Details
Boreas en de zeven zeeën / Boreas and the Seven Seas
Ploegsma Children’s Books
Hardcover ISBN 978-90-216-7438-4
Paperback ISBN 978-90-216-8733-9
Noordhoff Educational Publishers
School edition Vroege Lijsters
Paperback ISBN 978-90-010-2116-0
Boreas en de duizend eilanden / Boreas and the Thousand Islands
Ploegsma Children’s Books
Hardcover ISBN 978-90-216-7568-8
Paperback ISBN 978-90-216-8199-3
Boreas en de vier windstreken / Boreas and the Four Winds
Ploegsma Children’s Books
Hardcover ISBN 978-90-216-7720-0
Paperback ISBN 978-90-216-8363-8
Boreas en de vijftien vrienden / Boreas and the Fifteen Friends
Ploegsma Children’s Books
Hardcover ISBN 978-90-216-7876-4
Paperback, ISBN 978-90-216-8209-9
Mina Witteman 