This book would make a great serial TV show – the best of Lost, Peter Pan, and other fantasy-adventure stories – find a breath-taking and fast-paced home in Nadia Aguiar’s debut novel, The Lost Island of Tamarind. One exciting episode after the next, each and every chapater ending with a cliff-hanger or surprise, keep the reader turning page after page.
Maya lives at sea with her family – parents who are marine biologists, her annoying brother Simon, and their baby sister Penny. In a terrible storm, their parents are washed overboard and the children find themselves drifting into a cove of the mysterious and magical island of Tamarind. Immediately upon leaving the boat to find help and their parents, they begin on amazing adventure after another. They face danger, fierce animals, strange and shadey people, and a beautiful, war-torn landscape.
The adventure moves along at a fast clip, and, as each chapter passes, the children develop more as characters. Aguiar’s writing evokes wonderful images of fantastical places and creatures such as giants and mermaids. Readers will be transported following along as Maya and Simon escape their adversaries and solve a myriad of mysteries, all the while headed towards what will surely be an exciting sequel.
- Posted by Cori