Christina Soontornvat, author of this year's Fond du Lac Reads selection "All Thirteen," will join the Fond du Lac Public Library virtually for a conversation about her book.
Dive deeper into the captivating story of how the Wild Boars youth soccer team survived their ordeal in Thailand!
How to watch:
Library staff will help ask the author questions submitted during the program, either in person or via Zoom
About the Author & About the Book:
Christina Soontornvat is an award-winning author, engineer, and STEM educator. Her many works for children include picture books, chapter books, and the bestselling graphic novel, The Tryout. She is a three-time Newbery Honor recipient, most recently for The Last Mapmaker, which was also named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times.
"All Thirteen" tells the story of a school-age soccer team from Thailand that survived a terrifying ordeal. Click here to place a hold on a copy.
It's June 23, 2018 —a hot, cloudy day in northern Thailand. Twelve young players of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach head into a local cave after practice. They plan to spend only an hour or two exploring, but outside, rain has begun pouring down, and when they turn to leave, rising floodwaters block their path out. The boys are trapped.
Before long, news of the missing team spreads, launching a seventeen-day rescue operation involving thousands of rescuers from around the globe. As the world sits vigil night after night, people begin to wonder: How long can a group of ordinary kids survive in complete darkness, with no food or clean water?
Luckily, the Wild Boars are a very extraordinary “ordinary” group.
Combining material from community interviews with in-depth science content and details about the region’s culture and religion, All Thirteen paints two scenes of unflagging perseverance: Aboveground, a global rescue team of military personnel, engineers, medics, cave divers, and other volunteers races to find the trapped boys. Almost half a mile below, a similarly heroic effort is taking place in the quiet darkness as the Wild Boars focus on conserving their energy and oxygen, and—most importantly—keeping their hopes up. Both the boys and their rescuers will soon prove to the world that even in the face of impossible odds, the human spirit is an irrepressible force.
![](https://static.libnet.info/frontend-images/editor/fdlpl/Book_-_All_Thirteen.jpg)