 | August Isle Author: Standish, Ali | |
| Price: $6.55 | ||
Summary:
For years, Miranda has stared at postcards of August Isle, Florida. The town where her mother spent her summers as a girl. The town that Miranda has always ached to visit. She just never wanted it to happen this way. When she arrives on the Isle, alone and uncertain, to stay the summer with an old friend of her mother's, Miranda discovers a place even more perfect than she imagined. But there is more to August Isle than its bright streets and sandy beaches, and soon Miranda is tangled in a web of mysteries. A haunted lighthouse. An old seafarer with something to hide. A name reaching out from her mother's shadowy past. As she closes in on answers, Miranda must reckon with the biggest question of all: Is she brave enough to face the truth she might uncover?
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: MG Reading Level: 4.50 Points: 10.0 Quiz: 501510 | Reading Counts Information: Interest Level: 6-8 Reading Level: 4.30 Points: 15.0 Quiz: 76816 | |
Full Text Reviews:
School Library Journal - 03/01/2019 Gr 4 Up—The summer before Miranda starts eighth grade, her parents send her to August Isle, FL, to stay with her mother's ex-best friend and family. Miranda is eager to explore the bright streets and sandy beaches with Aunt Clare's daughter, Sammy. But mysteries abound. Why doesn't Miranda's mother want to be with her? Why did she throw out all of Clare's August Isle postcards? Why is Miranda so afraid of the sea? Who was Ben, a boy who apparently knew Clare and Miranda's mother when they were younger? Miranda is determined to overcome her fears and find answers. This book employs many well-worn tropes. There's a distant parent who has a painful secret, girls who look exactly like their mothers as children, an obnoxious boy who becomes their friend because there is nobody else to hang out with, a mysterious old man in the dilapidated house who just returned from years at sea, a nearby island where Something Bad happened in the past, and several locals who know what happened but won't tell the kids. Of course, Miranda disobeys warnings and sails to the forbidden island. History is repeated in a climactic scene and the truth is finally revealed. Although the plot is nothing new, Standish has created engaging characters, a pleasant setting, and enough intrigue to hook young readers. VERDICT A general purchase for fans of light summer mysteries.—Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT - Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
Booklist - 03/01/2019 Twelve-year-old Miranda, who feels rejected by her mother, spends a month on a Florida island with Mom’s childhood friend Clare and her family. Miranda tries to conquer her deep-rooted fear of water during sailing lessons with Clare’s daughter, Sammy, and their friend Caleb. Hoping to learn more about Mom’s mysterious past on the island, Miranda and Sammy look for clues. When a dare leads to Miranda breaking into an apparently abandoned house, she’s caught by the old man who lives there. Later, after a dramatic event uncovers buried memories, she begins to piece the past together in ways that may help her entire family move forward. It will come as no surprise that a tragic event in the past is the source of the family’s multigenerational emotional turmoil, but the use of coincidences and a melodramatic plot twist undermine the story’s credibility. Standish creates a number of sympathetic characters, though, and readers who enjoyed her first novel, The Ethan I Was Before (2017), may want to give this one a try. - Copyright 2019 Booklist.
