Review: All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat

Hey, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. I hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Christmas. I can’t believe it already happened and that we only have a few days left in 2022.

I haven’t done a review in a while, mainly because I haven’t come across a book that I had enough to say about to write a full review. But, I recently read a book that I sped through really fast, because it was so good. And it was nonfiction, surprisingly.

Title: All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of Thai Boys’ Soccer Team
Author: Christina Soontornvat
Genre: MG Nonfiction
Series: None
Page Count: 280 (hardcover)

An account of the amazing Thai cave rescue told in a you-are-there style that blends suspense, science, and cultural insight.

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. But 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, people begin to wonder: how long can a group of ordinary kids survive in complete darkness, with no food or clean water? Combining firsthand interviews of rescue workers with in-depth science and details of the region’s culture and religion, author Christina Soontornvat–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.

Content Warnings

caves – flooding – near death experience

There are no spoilers in this review.

I first heard about the rescue of the Thai Boys’ soccer team in an article I read for a summer program before high school. It was really interesting and I’ve always wanted to learn more, but I kind of forgot about the event until I read A Wish in the Dark, which is also by Christina Soontornvat. Looking through the other books she’s written, I discovered this one and my interest with the rescue came up again.

All Thirteen explores the rescue of the Wild Boars, a Thai boys’ soccer team, which has kids ranging from eleven to sixteen. When the boys go on an outing with their coach to the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Northern Thailand, they get trapped by floodwaters on the way back. It’s started to rain, three weeks earlier than expected. For over two weeks, the boys are trapped in the cave with nothing but themselves and flashlights.

I did not realize how much of a team effort it took to rescue the boys. There were people from all over the world who were called into to help with the rescue, as well as thousands of local volunteers. I learned so much from this book, in addition to the rescue itself, of course. There were a lot of difficulties in rescuing the boys, some which I didn’t expect, but made sense after I learned about them, like the depleting oxygen levels.

This book is designed to be like a textbook, with captioned pictures and pop up bits of information about the rescue or Thailand. But Christina Soontornvat makes the story so interesting and engaging; I wasn’t bored for any of it. I literally read over half the book in about an hour.

I think what also helped is that this book was written for the middle grade level. Everything was explained clearly, with terminology that was easy to follow along to. This would be a great read for anyone who’s interested in learning more about the rescue, regardless of age. In her author’s note, Christina Soontornvat explained how she interviewed people and learned all about the caves before writing this book. I think she did an excellent job at it.

My Rating: 5/5 dragons