Back matter includes an author's note and a bibliography. Soontornvat delivers humanizing coverage of a harrowing event, attempting to decenter Western media's lens with great success. Maps and other relevant information, including how 'A Cave Is Born,' 'Rules to Dive By,' and 'Thailand's Stateless People,' provide more depth and background, while insight into Thailand's culture and climate helps illustrate the serious challenges overcome by the internationally diverse group in order to accomplish the seemingly impossible rescue. Relayed in the present tense in a documentary-style tone, the 31 short chapters move along at a riveting pace, effectively conveying emotion and sensory details and thoroughly investing the reader in the outcome.

Full-color photographs and spotlighted sections introduce the 12 tight-knit players and assistant coach, the Thai officials, the rescue divers, and other volunteers who stayed for the nine days it took to safely recover all 13 trapped members.

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. Meticulously researched and generously illustrated with photographs, this page-turner includes an author’s note describing her experience meeting the team, detailed source notes, and a bibliography to fully immerse readers in the most ambitious cave rescue in history. Combining firsthand interviews of rescue workers with in-depth science and details of the region's culture and religion, author Christina Soontornvat-who was visiting family in Northern Thailand when the Wild Boars went missing-masterfully shows how both the complex engineering operation above ground and the mental struggles of the thirteen young people below proved critical in the life-or-death mission.

As the world sits vigil, 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. 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. But when they turn to leave, rising floodwaters block their path out. On June 23, 2018, twelve young players of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach enter a cave in northern Thailand seeking an afternoon’s adventure. A unique account of the amazing Thai cave rescue told in a heart-racing, you-are-there style that blends suspense, science, and cultural insight.

All thirteen by christina soontornvat