Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

I've actually had the pleasure of meeting Ruta Sepetys at our annual conference.  She's a fabulous speaker and author, so when her new book came out - of course I'm getting it.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys does not disappoint.  Here's an awesome historical fiction for teens.  The story is about the refuges making their way to the German ships to cross the Baltic Sea before the Russians get into what was East Prussia, known as Operation Hannibal.  Each character has their own survival story of WWII and are desperately seeking freedom as the war is coming to a close.  The Wilhelm Gustloff was a German luxury liner and was quickly converted into a hauling vessel for thousands of refuges.  This was already a precarious situation, and then add in a blizzard.  Tragically the ship was hit by Soviet submarine torpedoes, and so many lives were lost to the sea.  We never really hear about this tragedy during history lessons because it was a German ship during the war.  The estimates are around nine thousand people died during the sinking, and about five thousands of them were children - making this maritime disaster far worse than the Titanic.  The ship still lives on the bottom of the sea off the coast of Poland, and is called the ghost ship.

Ruta Sepetys weaves the story lines of four vastly different characters as they make their way to board the Wilhelm Gustloff.  I would definitely recommend this book for all secondary collections.  Even teens not looking for a historical fiction choice will enjoy reading this book - it'll keep you hanging on!