A Terrible Roar of Water: Disaster Strikes! 5

Penny Draper

Jan 2008 · Coteau Books

About this ebook

Murphy wants to grow up fast and be a fisherman. It's what men do in his small Newfoundland community. Then one cold day in 1929, a tsunami strikes the Burin Peninsula, destroying most of the out port and killing many people. Suddenly the twelve-year-old is doing a man' work, saving lives and caring for the people he loves. His dad died the day Murphy was born. Since no out port family can survive without a man to fish, his mom had to find a job in St. John' and Murphy stayed behind to be raised by his uncle and aunt. But Murphy has a grand plan. Soon he'll become a fisherman, build a house and bring his mom home to live with him. Then a day and night of terror begins with a small earthquake. An old-timer says there'll be a tidal wave coming, but people don't believe it. Murphy goes outside later to check and hears an odd sucking noise. All the water is gone from the harbour! It shoots back in a sixty-foot wave that fills the harbour and claws its way up the hill. He has only moments to save his aunt and cousins from the roaring water.

About the author

Penny Draper is the author of six previous Disaster Strikes! novels,including the most recent, Day of the Cyclone. Her novels in this series have received numerous awards and nominations in competitions across the country. Terror at Turtle Mountain, the first book in the series,was a finalist for the Silver Birch Young Readers’ Choice Award inOntario, as well as Saskatchewan’s Diamond Willow Award and theGeoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Writing for Young People. Penny Draper is a storyteller who lives in Victoria, BC. For many years,Penny shared tales as a professional storyteller at schools, libraries, conferences, festivals, and on radio and television. She has told stories in anArabian harem and from inside a bear’s belly –but that is a story in itself...