After the sudden death of his parents, fourteen year old Mark Talbot's comfortable and sheltered world crashes around him. His uncle, following instructions in his father's will, sends Mark to New Zealand to live with a colony of Maori people that his father knew and loved as a young man. Among these brown skinned Polynesians, Mark begins to grow to manhood, not just in body but in mind and spirit. His inherited family teaches him love, truth, beauty, and the satisfaction of hard work. Mark finally faces doubts, fears, and anxieties that have haunted him since his parents' deaths when he encounters a deadly shark in the ocean's dark waters. Here he confronts himself as well as the shark. Robert Barlow Fox is retired as teacher, counselor, psychologist and parole officer. He served as a missionary for three years among the Maori people of New Zealand who made a deep impression on his life. He also served in the Navy aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific, and in the Army in France. Fox holds BS and MS degrees and he and his wife travel extensively to learn of history, culture, and peoples of different lands. Robert is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and has published in many journals and magazines. He has won three awards from Freedom's Foundation, one for an essay on Abraham Lincoln which was read into the Congressional Record by then Senator Wallace F. Bennett of Utah. Robert Fox is also the author of TO BE A WARRIOR, THE BOY WHO HEARS MUSIC and THE SEEKER, all from Sunstone Press