An Island of Our Own

By Author / Illustrator

Sally Nicholls

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

11+

Publisher

Scholastic

ISBN

9781407124339

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

02-04-2015

Synopsis

From one of the brightest talents in children's fiction and the winner of the Waterstones Children's Book prize comes a new novel about family and friendship. Siblings Jonathan, Holly and Davy have been struggling to survive since the death of their mother, and are determined to avoid being taken into care. When the family's wealthy but eccentric Great-Aunt Irene has a stroke, they go to visit her. Unable to speak or write, she gives Holly some photographs that might lead them to an inheritance that could solve all their problems. But they're not the only ones after the treasure...

Reviews

I started reading this, thinking how many books for young people there are with 'non-traditional' families: single parents, divorces, families falling apart, and so on. Sally Nicholls' latest has a family of orphans, with Holly (13 and the first person narrator) and Davy (7) being looked after by 20 year old brother Jonathan, in a grotty London flat. I wondered whether it would have something to make it stand out from the rest, and I think it does. The style is engaging, and portrays Holly as a resilient character, passionate about saving the world, with ambitions to become a climate scientist, as well as trying desperately to keep their family unit going. They are struggling for money, with social services and schools not quite helping enough, and Jonathan obviously at his wits end to balance everything. Jonathan's character is well portrayed, sacrificing a huge amount to look after his family: while other 20 year olds are carefree students, he has a minimum wage job and no prospects. He is a worrier, too, and Holly's personality balances this out. She is adventurous, optimistic, and persuades her brother to take risks. The children discover they have been left some 'treasure' in an eccentric aunt's will, but have to find it using a series of photos. This plot is less far-fetched than it might sound, and their journey to Orkney, helped by a variety of friends and online contacts, is all quite feasible. Gradually, they become less of an 'island', and gain the support of all sorts of unexpected people. The end is positive, as their world starts to open up, and there is definitely hope on the horizon. The book has elements of a quite old-fashioned adventure story, along with modern features that make the plot work (crowd-funding, the 'Maker Space' with its multitude of useful talents, like lock picking and metal detecting). The characters are well developed, and make a journey in both a literal and figurative sense. 216 pages / Ages 11+ / Reviewed by Carol Williams, librarian.