doc ford kids

ADVENTURE ON SANIBEL

Randy Wayne White talks about his first YA novel ‘Fins,’ sharks and why he won’t swim parts of the Caloosahatchee.

PHOTO BY BRIAN TIETZ

BY CHARLES RUNNELLS

andy Wayne White sails into uncharted waters with his latest novel, “Fins.”

It’s his first young adult book — something the bestselling author says he’s wanted to do for years.

Randy remembers how much books meant to him as a kid. Now he hopes to bring some of that joy to today’s children, too.

“Growing up in rural areas, I came to fall in love with books,” he says. “And I came to think, hope or wish that if I could write a book, maybe I could become a part of the magic that I found in books.

“But particularly at that age — the middle-grade age, young adult reading age — those books really struck a chord.”

As a boy, the Sanibel Island resident devoured books such as “A Wrinkle in Time,” “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and August Derleth’s Steve and Sim Mystery Series — all inspirations for “Fins.”

“I still have some of those books,” he says. “And they still make me smile when I think of them.”

Just don’t expect a lot of Doc Ford — Randy’s most famous character — in this new novel. The marine biologist is there. And so is fishing guide Hannah Smith. But those characters aren’t the stars.

Instead, it’s three kids who help Doc Ford tag sharks in the waters around Sanibel Island. Things turn dangerous, though, when they stumble on a shark poaching camp and barely escape. Then the poachers learn their identities and show up one day in a black van with tinted windows.

“Fins” hit bookstores and online retailers March 31, although the coronavirus outbreak derailed plans for a book tour. It’s the first in Randy’s planned Sharks Incorporated series.

The novel has racked up some strong reviews.

Goodreads calls it “a high-stakes, masterfully plotted story of courage, friendship ... and sharks!” Kirkus Reviews offers similar praise: “This well-paced, exciting series opener will keep readers on their toes.”

The story follows Hannah Smith’s nephew Luke, who gets struck by lightning and develops a photographic memory and an acute sense of perception he calls his “lightning eye.” He meets Cuban sisters Sabina and Maribel, and together they start tagging blacktip sharks for a research program. Hannah jokingly calls the trio “Sharks Incorporated.”

The book’s main characters draw heavily from Randy’s own life and experiences.

Like Luke, Randy also grew up in rural Ohio, took part in 4-H and was

struck by lightning (well, almost).

And like Luke, Randy has a rare neurological condition called synesthesia, where one of your five senses (such as hearing) is simultaneously experienced along with another (such as sight). So music and other sounds might have an accompanying taste. Or words might have a specific color or even a gender.

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever told anyone this, outside my family,” Randy says. “But I simply took it on faith as a child, growing up, and well into adulthood that everybody heard numbers and names in different colors. I always have, and I just thought it was commonplace."

Then Randy came across the word “synesthesia” and looked it up. And he discovered the rarity of his condition.

“I’ve been that way my entire life,” he says. “You can say any word, and I’ll tell you what kind of color comes to my mind. Every day of the week has a different color — and several shades. It’s always been that way.”

The two Cuban characters, Sabina and Maribel, were inspired by Randy’s involvement in the mass emigration of Cubans known as the Mariel boatlift in 1980.

“I ran a 55-foot boat down from Fort Myers Beach to Key West, picked up two Cuban-American friends,” the former fishing guide says. “We went across to Mariel Harbor, spent 11 days in Mariel Harbor. It was insanity. We came back with 147 people jammed together on this 55-foot boat.”

He soon became aware of two young girls who were all by themselves without any apparent adult supervision.

“They were so attentive to one another and so caring,” Randy says. “And the younger sister was a fireball. If some adult pressed in too close, she would yell at them and swear at them in Spanish.

“I can still picture them in my mind.”

Randy first introduced the three characters in his recent Doc Ford novel “Salt River.”

“I was well aware that they would come back in a book of their own,” he says.

That book, “Fins,” is set in the same old-Sanibel universe as Randy’s bestselling Doc Ford and Hannah Smith novels. It’s a place Randy enjoys visiting.

“I like the Doc Ford Universe,” Randy says. “It’s the old Tarpon Bay Marina where I was a fishing guide.

“I loved that world, and I miss it. I really do. I miss that small fishing community.”

In addition to entertaining people, Randy also hopes to educate them: about sharks, about poaching, and even about boating safety.

“Fins” is packed with safety tips and shark facts — although Randy says he was careful not to come off as preachy.

“I wish every boating adult was forced to read this book, because there are some basic tenets of safety in there that very few people apparently know,” he says and laughs. “I did more than 3,000 charters, and some of those lessons I learned the hard way.”

He also hopes to inspire a feeling of wonder about Florida’s waters and the creatures that live there.

“It’s to relate the joy I got and still get out of being on the water, looking through the water, and trying to figure out what is alive and moving around on the bottom,” he says. “I hope it strikes a chord with people, not just kids.”

Like the stars of “Fins,” Randy used to volunteer tagging sharks for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“It was just so fun and exciting,” he says. “And man, we got some

We forget that, as children, we are actually, in a way, the adults we will become. There is an unexpected, unappreciated “ maturity in children that I am aware of and tried to respect in this book.”

monster sharks in this area! Big bull sharks.

“I’ll tell you what: I wouldn’t swim across the mouth of the Caloosahatchee. There are some monsters in there.”

One thing he didn’t want to do with “Fins”: Talk down to his young readers.

“We forget that, as children, we are actually, in a way, the adults we will become,” he says. “There is an unexpected, unappreciated maturity in children that I am aware of and tried to respect in this book.

“So I really didn’t set out to write a child’s book. I set out to write the best book I could write using techniques and sentence patterns that would be more easily attainable to younger readers and also adults.”

And if you love “Fins,” there’s good news. Randy says he’s already working on the second Sharks Incorporated book.

He says he’s proud of “Fins” and wants to continue exploring that world.

“I love the characters,” he says. “It’s one of my favorite books.”

BONUS: Get free “Fins” downloadable activity sheets at randywaynewhite.com.