The Islander

A Newbery Medal-winning author charts the journey of Daniel Jennings, who lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with his grandfather and spends ten years of his youth unraveling the mysteries of a mermaid and a life-saving key.

Grade 4 Up?A young man recalls his childhood on a remote island off the coast of British Columbia. The novel begins when 10-year-old Daniel, who lives with his reticent grandfather, is overcome with loneliness and turns to the sea in search of a friend. In response to his message in a bottle, a mermaid briefly appears. Another note asking her to return results in a key delivered by an otter with a diamond-shaped mark on his forehead. Later, Daniel finds that the key has magical powers. He discovers that he has a talent for helping birds, and he and his grandfather grow closer as they care for them together. Many years later, his grandfather dies, and Daniel discovers a photo of a young girl and her dog, which has a white diamond-shaped mark on his forehead. He learns that the girl was his grandfather's sister who perished while diving into the ocean during a storm to save the dog. Entirely alone and grief stricken, Daniel suddenly feels the long-silent key vibrate once again. It leads him to a box containing a puppy, who becomes the first member of his new family. Drawing on her talent for simple yet beautiful language to tell a story, Rylant tries her hand at fantasy with mixed results. Her heavy reliance on symbolism finally snaps the thin threads of credulity so necessary in successful fantasy, and young readers may miss their meaning. In addition, the emphasis on Daniel's spiritual journey rather than his character and the unemotional account of events combine to reduce readers' involvement.?Maggie McEwen, Coffin Elementary School,
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Rylant (Missing May) breaks new ground with this allegorical tale set on an island off the coast of British Columbia. Through the perspective of an adult narrator revisiting his pivotal 10th year, Rylant has invoked the voice of a true loner attempting to connect with someone or something outside himself. Orphaned and living with his grandfather, Daniel feels utterly alone until he sights a mermaid, who later gives him the gift of a magic key. But when he attempts to share this climactic meeting with his grandfather, he finds himself even more isolated ("I knew that my grandfather believed I was not well, that my mind was not well, and that the loss of my parents and the loneliness of living with him had made me so"). The magic key acts as a divining rod, leading the boy to animals and a lost girl in need of help, and slowly bridges a link with others. While modern inventions (airplanes and refrigerators) indicate a contemporary setting, the protagonist seems to belong to another era, if not another world. By painstakingly building a moat around the narrator from the start, Rylant allows readers to cross the drawbridge with Daniel as he strives to understand the mysteries of the sea and his own heritage, and begins to recognize the love and family that was always with him. Ages 11-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A young man learns to accept love and loss in this resonant novel from Rylant (see review, above). Daniel was only a boy when his parents were killed in a plane crash and so his grandfather, who lived with him on the remote island of Coquille, off British Columbia, became his guardian. Rylant suggests that it was perhaps because Daniel was so numbed by grief that he was more open to the extraordinary occurrence of his chance meeting with a mermaid. Through the mermaid's gift of a key, which vibrates whenever Daniel is near a wounded animal, he learns that he is a natural healer; later, as the key leads to the recovery of Franny, a young girl who is lost, Daniel discovers, of course, that the key unlocks his own heart. The shy boy who once avoided his neighbors becomes a vital member of the island's small community, a son to his loving grandfather, and the perfect future husband for Franny. When his grandfather dies, Daniel finds that his spirit is again forged by grief, but he emerges stalwart, compassionate, and open to what life offers: ``I do know that I once believed heaven was only clouds and sky,'' Daniel says. ``But now I wonder if it might be as well the dark and mysterious sea.'' In these precious hundred pages, Rylant reassures her readers that while there is joy and agony in life, there is magic, as well. (Fiction. 11-13) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 5^-8. On his twentieth birthday, the book's "author," Daniel Jennings, recounts what happened to him when he was a boy. Orphaned after the death of his parents, Daniel goes to live with his grandfather on a remote island off the coast of British Columbia. Daniel, too, is remote. He doesn't go to school and rarely speaks with the other islanders; when he does, he is shy. With his eyes always toward the ground, Daniel finds things. One day, he finds a mysterious comb, which he recognizes as a mermaid's comb. And sure enough, before long the mermaid appears. She calls him by name, then disappears, but sends him a magic key that Daniel uses over the years to rescue both animals and his future wife. After his grandfather's death, Daniel learns more about his family, the mermaid, and the tie between them that closes the circle. In both format and length, this book is small, but Rylant fills it with mysteries. In so short a text, each word is precious, and choosing them so precisely and elegantly is where Rylant shines. Her seemingly effortless way with words makes her story a pleasure for readers of any age. What imperfections there are come mostly from intention rather than execution. The book occasionally hovers around the pretentious and has more than one brush with the coincidental. And readers mustn't look too closely at some of the story's particulars--or one might wonder, Don't these islanders have television, or computers, or . . . ? No, to keep the story's mystical mood intact, treat the book like a fragile ornament: handle it carefully to preserve its luster. Ilene Cooper