My children and I enjoyed listening to this together. It is excellent historical fiction, written in a way that manages to be informative, engaging and realistic all at once. Highly recommend. There is a small amount of romance. Mr. Bowditch was a very intelligent mathematical navigator in a time when far too many ships were lost at sea. He is the kind of hero boys need in this high-tech world where it seems all you need is the internet to be able to do anything.