Book excerpt: Nelson Paige and his Grandfather awake at dawn to a sea that is like a gray void emerging out of an expansive black night. Dawn, the third day of their adventure, creeps in with a sliver of salmon-pink sky, and the wind starts to inch upward in the southwest. Ever so quietly Grandfather places his finger into the air, an old-fashioned technique of predicting the weather-but in his estimation dependable. Within hours the wind seems to pick up momentum and begins to blow. The system spins faster and faster. "It's a force-9," assures Grandfather. The sea becomes gray and marbled, and it begins to rise. Lightening flashes across the sky, and he counts the seconds before he hears the thunder. Rain sputters down the steel-colored sky, and the horizon is blotted out by a huge wall of gray water. The ocean belches forth violently during the storm unwanted debris. After the storm subsides, Nelson Paige walks the shore, where discovers an alabaster container dusted by a thousand ocean storms that changes his life forevermore. Nelson Paige Rides a Whale is the third in a series of four historical novels: People of the Forest and Lakes (Iroquois), People of the Plains (Pawnee/Cherokee), People of the Rivers and Sea (Okonogan), and People of the Deserts and Mesas (Navajos). Born in the Midwest, BJ Lamberti lives in California. Her other titles include Nelson Paige and the Treasure Trove and Nelson Paige and the Dream Catcher.