Skip to main content

Review: The Islands of Elsewhere

The Islands of Elsewhere
By Heather Fawcett
New York: Rocky Pond Books, 2023. Fiction. 220 pages.

The Snolly family has relocated to live with their ill grandfather for the summer, but the sisters are worried about what will happen to Granddaddy when they return to the city in the fall. When they hear local legends about a missing treasure their pirate great-great-grandmother might have hidden on the family's seaside property, they are determined to find the treasure to help their grandfather.

Each of the sisters has a unique set of interests: Hattie, the oldest, is interested in art and has a fixation on collecting money but never spending it; the middle sister, Bee, loves studying plants and collecting useful items to keep in her beloved backpack; the youngest sister, Plum, dresses in detailed costumes and imagines she becomes the role she is dressed up as. Readers will delight in the girls' vibrant personalities. The hint of magic that hovers over the story will give fantasy fans a taste of the genre blended with the mystery of the small coastal town. Family tensions and sibling rivalries the sisters learn to navigate will resonate with many young readers. An enjoyable sibling story with a modern fairytale feel.

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...