All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys Soccer Team

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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.

2021 Newbery Honor Book
Winner, 2021 Kirkus Prize for Young People’s Literature
2021 Sibert Honor Book
YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist
National Council for the Teaching of English 2020 Orbis Pictus Honor Book
Bank Street College Flora Stieglitz Straus Book Award for Older Readers
SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction for Older Readers
Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, The New York Public Library, BookPage, and Shelf Awareness
The recipient of SEVEN starred trade reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, School Library Journal, The Horn Book, Shelf Awareness, Publishers Weekly, and BookPage.
State reading list selection for Maine and Vermont
Spirit of Texas Book Award

Candlewick Press, 2020
ISBN-10: 1536209457
ISBN-13: 978-1536209457

EXTRAS

Discussion with Teacher Colby Sharp

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PRAISE

Soontornvat selects details and measures her pacing with the practiced hand of a master storyteller, and while everything is supported by meticulous research, the prose never suffers from information density; rather, every aside—whether on hypothermia, ketamine, or Navy SEAL training—adds tension through understanding. Readers who already know the outcome will nonetheless be enthralled by this singular tale that captures the importance of STEM education, the beauty of Thailand, and the best of humanity—collaboration, innovation, sacrifice, family, and love.

Booklist (STARRED Review)

The term page-turner gets tossed around a lot, but All Thirteen is the real deal. Even if you think you know this story, you won’t be able to stop reading.

Steve Sheinkin, award-winning author of Bomb and Undefeated

In lucid prose written in third-person-present tense for a heightened sense of immediacy, Soontornvat gives readers a journalistic account of the difficulty and complexity of the rescue effort. Using interviews and other primary sources, she keeps a tight focus on the unfolding story, with its inherent edge-of-your-seat, heart-in-your-throat drama, adroitly juggling a parade of characters, clearly laying out the technical and engineering challenges, and judiciously parsing out expository information in the occasional sidebar.

The Horn Book (STARRED Review)

An in-depth account of a harrowing real-life mission that succeeds against all odds…Masterful storytelling fleshes out the complex human emotions behind key decisions, illuminates diplomatic and political negotiations, and underscores an unwavering faith—in maintaining hope and in harnessing powers of the mind. Thoughtfully researched, expertly crafted.

Kirkus Reviews (STARRED Review)

Soontornvat’s narrative nonfiction account shares these events and those that led to the rescue along with intricate details about caverns, sump diving, and other scientific details that emphasize the harrowing conditions of the rescue. She also touches on Thai culture, immigration issues, Buddhism, and religion…This stellar nonfiction work reads like a heart-pounding adventure story. Every library should have a copy.

School Library Journal (STARRED Review)

Soontornvat masterfully chronicles this amazing undertaking, in which incredible ad hoc feats of engineering became commonplace. Her narration and the testimonies of the numerous figures she interviewed are suspenseful and deeply felt. Interspersed with All Thirteen’s gripping account are fascinating, accessible analyses – supplemented by photos, diagrams, maps and more – of the cultural, technological, scientific and spiritual considerations that affected the rescue effort, from Buddhism to climate change to political protocol…All Thirteen is an inspiring testament to those 18 fateful days of communal empathy, determination and hope. In Soontornvat’s talented hands, it’s at once a nail-biter and a revelation: “This rescue was impossible, and they did it anyway.”

Bookpage (STARRED Review)

In her nonfiction debut, Soontornvat (Simon at the Art Museum) presents a well-researched, comprehensive look at the 2018 rescue of the Wild Boars juvenile soccer team from Thailand’s flooded Tham Luang Nang Non cave…Soontornvat delivers humanizing coverage of a harrowing event, attempting to decenter Western media’s lens with great success. Back matter includes an author’s note and a bibliography.

Publishers Weekly Online (STARRED Review)