Everyone has a hero. Some people, like to openly say theirs out loud, while others prefer to cherish their hero in a quieter, and more personal way. Personally, I like to quietly acknowledge my hero and all she has done in the fictitious world of novels. My hero is Robie, a fifteen-year-old who lives on Midway Atoll, and makes the 2,110 kilometer journey every summer to Honolulu to live with her Aunt A.J. On her way back from Honolulu, her plane suddenly crashes and she is stranded in the middle of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. She is my hero because she lived through one horrific plane crash, and being stranded in the middle of the ocean with Max, a half-dead copilot, his ditty bag, and a bag of skittles, and a bright yellow raft. Her escape from the deep ocean and insanity was one of the most daring and courageous in the world of novels.

Robie is an only child who lives with her mother and father on Midway Atoll, and during the long summers, lives with her Aunt A.J. Her Aunt lives in Honolulu, and she takes Robie out every night to do fun stuff. However, her Aunt leaves during the trip unexpectedly for work, which leaves Robie alone. Robie becomes very scared of the outside world, and wants to take a plane back to Midway. She eventually makes her cargo flight with a pilot she’s known for a while, and a new copilot who she hasn’t met yet. In an unfortunate turn of events, her plane is catapulted into the North Pacific. Robie thinks that Max has at least survived the crash, but he is only a memory. His notebook is what motivates Robie to keep living, and survive once she has been stranded on the island. In a rampage of day long sobs and cries of agony, Robie was spotted by the National Geographic Photographers on a big cargo ship. At the end of the story, Robie is finally reunited with her family, and she is back on Midway.

During her days at sea, she entertains herself with bailing the raft, which she must do unless she wants her raft to sink under the waves. She finds out later from a Survival at Sea handbook that she needs to consistently air out her clothes to prevent saltwater boils, and she needs to keep herself hydrated if she can and well fed. She kept Max’s ditty bag on board her raft, and she reads his journal entries for days at a time. A scare comes to her once she hits the island. Max’s boot washes up on the shoreline, with half a leg and a bone peeking out. She crawls into the ocean to try to find his life vest, and she finds the rest of his corpse instead. With this new information, she realizes that she has been making Max up in her mind, and keeping him around as a motivational tool. Without Max’s spirit with her, Robie might have died.

All in all, I think Robie is a hero because of her determination to survive and her passion to make it through this tough time is one of the reasons why I really worship her as my hero. She went through an awful plane crash and lived to tell the tale. She was courageous, and she was brave enough to push herself through her hardships, like losing her raft to the wind and having to swim meters after it, and having to push through harsh storms and rough waters.. Therefore, even though her lack of food, water, shelter, and someone to talk to, she pushed through her insanity and weakness like a champion. She might not be recognized in all fiction books, but she will always be a hero in my book.