Girl. Boy. Sea. by Chris Vick

• Girl. Boy. Sea. by Chris Vick is a story of adventure and survival.

• It tells the tale of Aya, an Amazigh girl, and Bill, a British boy, who are both shipwrecked in the Atlantic Ocean.

• In the novel, Aya and Bill face terrible hardships including extreme hunger and thirst, wild storms and the burning sun.

• To distract from their suffering, Aya tells stories that bring them hope and strength.

Did you know?

The author of Girl. Boy. Sea., Chris Vick, works in ocean conservation.

He wants his readers to realise the importance of protecting the ocean and the creatures that live in it.

Watch the video below to learn about the plot, characters and themes in Girl. Boy. Sea.

Bill is on a youth sailing challenge. He and the crew are sailing a yacht off the coast of Morocco when a storm hits. He ends up alone on a tiny rowing boat in the Atlantic Ocean.

Bill rescues Aya, an Amazigh girl from North Africa who was shipwrecked in the same storm. Together, they struggle to survive on the boat. They must find water, shelter and food.

Bill doesn't speak any of Aya's languages, but she knows some English. At first, they communicate through gestures and drawings but Aya learns English quickly. To get through the long days, Aya tells Bill traditional tales from One Thousand and One Nights.

They reach a desert island and find another survivor, Stephan. Aya recognises him and knows he is a people trafficker. During an argument, Stephan attacks Aya and, in the fight, he falls off a cliff and dies.

Aya tells Bill about her life. She was captured by a warlord but managed to escape. She stole his jewels and wants to return home to rebuild her village. She makes Bill swear to keep her secrets.

When Bill and Aya leave the island, Bill is attacked by a shark and loses consciousness. He wakes up in a hospital in London. He was rescued by a fisherman called Mohamed and has been in a coma. There is no sign of Aya.

Bill persuades his parents that he must return to Morocco and talk to Mohamed. He is desperate to find out what happened.

In Morocco, Bill finds a note from Aya hidden in their rowing boat. She explains that she loves him, but that she must return to her village and fight the warlord.

Activity

Bill

Bill is a 15-year-old British boy who is interested in science. Practical and brave, his ability to solve problems helps him to survive the dangers at sea. The story is told from his point of view.

Aya

Aya is a teenage girl from Morocco. She belongs to the Amazigh tribe. She is strong, fearless and has escaped war and captivity. Aya is determined to return to help her village. She is a gifted storyteller and is multilingual.

Stephan

Stephan is a young man who is involved with people traffickers. He is half Spanish and half Arabic. Stephan is not trustworthy and threatens Aya.

Jake Wilson

"Wilko" is the captain and leader of the Youth Sail challenge that Bill is taking part in when he is shipwrecked at the beginning of the novel. He feels guilty that he did not save Bill during the storm. Wilko visits Bill in hospital and helps Bill return to Morocco to find Aya.

Mohamed

Mohamed is the Moroccan fisherman who rescues Aya and Bill.

Lucy and John

Lucy and John are Bill’s parents. His dad encourages him to go on the sailing challenge to enjoy an adventure.

Themes are the main ideas that appear repeatedly in a novel. Some of the important themes in Girl. Boy. Sea. are:

• Survival
• Friendship
• The power of storytelling

There are many types of survival in the story. Bill and Aya must survive on the open ocean battling wind, storms, relentless heat, hunger, thirst and dangerous sea creatures. They struggle against the natural, wild environment.

Aya has already survived a harsh life where she has been orphaned, caught up in war, imprisoned and has escaped slavery and people traffickers.

In the novel, Bill and Aya must do everything they can to survive – taking risks and doing things they normally would not do. For example, Bill must kill and eat a turtle and Aya must trust Bill who is male and a stranger.

Bill and Aya come from contrasting backgrounds. They have different customs and do not speak the same languages. Despite this, they learn to trust and depend on each other for survival.

The novel shows that human beings can overcome their differences. As Aya writes at the end:

We lived in a country with no borders. We slept in a house with no walls.

Throughout the novel, Aya tells stories to Bill. These stories distract them from their suffering, give them hope to keep going and create greater understanding between the pair.

Aya’s stories, loosely based on One Thousand and One Nights, tell of clever women, peasants, thieves and warlords. By the end, Aya becomes like one of the female heroes in her own stories – a "shadow warrior".

Vick also makes references to Greek mythology. Pandora is the name of the yacht that Bill is on board when the storm hits. Aya tells the story of Pandora who opens a box and lets evil into the world, but also hope. She connects the story to their own experiences, teaching Bill that they too must always have hope.

Writers choose words and phrases carefully when they write. Readers can look closely at texts to think about how and why the writer made these choices.

Personification

In Girl. Boy. Sea., the ocean is personified, which means that it is given human qualities.

For example, in this quote from the start of the book, it is as if the ocean is deliberately trying to keep Bill away from the safety of the raft:

They tried to pull the rope, to get the raft closer to Pandora, but the sea was holding it away, straining the rope hard.

The sea acts like an antagonist to Bill and Aya. It is dangerous and unpredictable yet often beautiful. They must struggle against the sea to survive yet are also dependent on it for food and a way to get home.

Other forces of nature are also personified, like the storms, the wind and the sun.

Structure refers to how written text is organised – the way the story is ordered and shaped.

Narrative voice

The novel is told from Bill’s point of view as a first-person narrative and clearly maps out the journey he takes. It is structured into six chapters which are told in chronological order.

However, within the six chapters, Aya’s stories are given their own titles to emphasise their importance. For example, The Tale of Shahrazad and The Thief of the Light. This shows that Aya's stories are equally as important as Bill's. They are more than just ways to pass the time, they are re-tellings of the past and ways of giving hope for the future.

The context in which a novel was written can sometimes tell you more about its themes, message and meaning.

The Amazigh people

Aya is an Amazigh. The Amazigh people do not belong to one country. They live on land stretching across North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt.

They have their own language and cultural traditions. Sometimes, this has caused problems with national governments and leaders who don’t like these differences.

Amazigh communities have been broken up and sometimes attacked. In the novel, Aya’s village has been taken over by a violent and greedy warlord who terrorises the Amazigh people.

One Thousand and One Nights

Aya tells stories including Shahrazad and One Thousand and One Nights. One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Nights, is a group of folk tales collected from across Persia, India and Arabia.

To save her own life, every night for one thousand and one nights, Shahrazad tells stories to her husband, the Sultan. Every night she ends the story with a cliff-hanger, forcing him to keep her alive for another day.

Like Shahrazad, Aya also tells stories to survive. Many of her stories are in fact versions of her own life experiences.

Did you know?

One Thousand and One Nights includes famous stories such as Aladdin and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

The Amazigh people have their own myths and folktales including stories about Lunja – a young girl who appears in Aya’s tales.