After 20 years as a London-based reporter, American journalist Bryson ( The Mother Tongue ) set out to retrace a youthful European backpacking trip, from arctic Norway's northern lights to romantic Capri and the "collective delirium" of Istanbul. Descriptions of historic and artistic sights in the Continent's capitals are cursory; Bryson prefers lesser-known locales, whose peculiar flavor he skillfully conveys in anecdotes that don't scant the seamy side and often portray eccentric characters encountered during untoward adventures of the road.
Grade 1-3-One of the original life-saving stations along North Carolina's Outer Banks, Pea Island Station had the first all African-American crew. On October 11, 1896, Keeper Richard Etheridge and six surfmen rescued all of the passengers and crew from the E. S. Newman, which had run aground in a storm. It was not until 1996 that the heroes were acknowledged and awarded gold medals from President Clinton and Admiral Kramek of the U.S. Coast Guard. This skillfully written story tells the tale of that fateful night through the eyes of 10-year-old Sam Deal. The text and evocative, full-color watercolor artwork give life to a long-forgotten and exciting sea rescue.
For most of his adult life, Bryson has made his home in the U.K, yet he actually entered the world in 1951 as part of America's postwar baby boom and spent his formative years in Des Moines, Iowa. Bryson wistfully recounts a childhood of innocence and optimism, a magical point in time when a distinct sense of regional and community identity briefly—but blissfully—coexisted with fledgling technology and modern convenience. Narrating, Bryson skillfully wields his amorphous accent—somehow neither fully British nor Midwestern—to project a genial and entertaining tour guide of lost Americana.
