Islands in the Sky (Voyage of the Basset, No. 1) - Softcover

Lee, Tanith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679891277 ISBN 13: 9780679891277

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers, 1999

Synopsis

London, 1877. Twelve-year-old Hope Glover climbs a tree to rescue a kite but instead finds the kite pulling her into the sky, over the ocean, and into a storm! She is rescued by a small, beautiful ship--the Basset--and drawn into a magical world where a war rages between centaurs and winged horses. It's up to Hope to find a solution which turns out to include an out-of-practice genie, a new pair of wings, and the legendary Pandora's box itself! Middle-grade boys and girls will be swept up in this first exciting adventure in the fantastic world of the Basset!

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-7-In a fantasy reminiscent of C. S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew, a girl and boy are transported from Victorian England to a magical realm with talking beasts, dwarves, fairies, and Sinbad's roc and genie from The Arabian Nights. Hope, named for the Greek myth, "Pandora's Box," is charged by Pegasus with the task of saving the talking horses from slavery under the centaurs. The boy, Apollo, starts out misguided but is improved by his adventure, in which he is captured by the centaurs and participates unwittingly in their scheme to enlist the help of the legendary bird against the horses by stealing her egg. The plot's focus alternates between the two children and is dependent on the myth of "Pandora's Box," which is retold twice. While the avuncular and gently humorous narrative voice together with unusually lovely imagery make this a pleasant read, the theme of the value of imagination is somewhat forced. The ship, The Basset, displays a banner marked "By believing, one sees" and Hope receives a card that reads "Believe and see-stories equal truth" (B-a-s-s-e-t), although the title's tie-in with Charles Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle may go unperceived by many young readers. This appears to be the first of a proposed series with multiple authors based on the original story (Artisan, 1996) by James C. Christensen.
Valerie Diamond, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, MD
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0679891277
• ISBN 13: 9780679891277
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256