Joon stood tall and straight at one end of the line, her gaze intent on the sea, and Nat waited patiently beside her, a book clutched in her hands. There was thin Eevie, frowning at the lapping water as though it had done something wrong, and Oz and Jak, jostling each other. There was Deen, who towered beside Jinny and now leaned to set the bell gently back on its hook, and little Sam, beside him. They stood waiting like uneven fence posts. It was like this every time the bell rang.Īt the cove, they lined up, breathless and staring out to sea, to watch the boat come in against the sunset. Eight kids, sprinting from the fire circle or the outdoor kitchen, emerging from their cabins, racing for the bell and the tall boy ringing it by the water’s edge. When she burst from the cabin into the evening air, Jinny ran.Īlong the beach, everyone was running-bolting for the cove, summoned by the golden clatter of the bell, so bright in the dusk.
She threw down her book, rose from the stale comfort of the old brown sofa, and scrambled for the door. Jinny knows her responsibility now-to teach Ess everything she needs to know about the island, to keep things as they’ve always been.īut will she be ready for the inevitable day when the boat will come back-and take her away forever from the only home she’s known? less …
The boat arrives, taking away Jinny’s best friend, Deen, replacing him with a new little girl named Ess, and leaving Jinny as the new Elder. The sun rises in a sky filled with dancing shapes the wind, water, and trees shelter and protect those who live there when the nine children go to sleep in their cabins, it is with full stomachs and joy in their hearts.Īnd only one thing ever changes: on that day, each year, when a boat appears from the mist upon the ocean carrying one young child to join them-and taking the eldest one away, never to be seen again. In the tradition of modern-day classics like Sara Pennypacker’s Pax and Lois Lowry’s The Giver comes a deep, compelling, heartbreaking, and completely one-of-a-kind novel about nine children who live on a mysterious island.
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