Skip to main content

Fog Island


Fog Island
by Tomi Ungerer
Phaidon, 2013.  Unpaged.  Picture Book

     In a book dedicated to "Ireland and all the wonderful people who welcomed us here," the incomparable Tomi Ungerer tells the story of Fog Island, a mysterious, rocky outcropping where few have journeyed and none returned. "Finn and Cara were brother and sister.  They lived by the sea in the back of beyond."  One day they ventured out in the small boat, a curragh, their father had fashioned for them. Blown off course, they thought themselves lost, but drifted at last into a small inlet--on Fog Island.  There they meet the master of the island, the Fogmaker himself, who cares for them kindly, shares the secrets of his craft, and then disappears the next day, as the children take themselves back out to sea, and to rescue. This beautifully atmospheric story, with pictures of such subtlety one hardly notices the magic they are working, is one of Ungerer's finest.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...