![]() ![]() We don't know how the children get there, or why, or how the island takes care of them. ![]() It invites inevitable comparisons to Hokey Pokey, by Jerry Spinelli, of course, and for its first half Orphan Island seems to occupy that same allegorical space. Once a year a boat comes to bring a new toddler (a Care) and takes away the oldest child (the Elder), who is approaching adolescence. The premise is simple: nine children (each one year apart in age) live on an idyllic island. I feel like I should be getting more confident in my critical assessments as I get older, but instead I increasingly find myself going, "Huh! That sure was a book!" or, "Okay, I guess that's the kind of thing we're publishing these days?" It seems to happen more and more often to me. ![]() Sometimes you finish a book and you're not sure whether you've just read the best book of the year or witnessed a train wreck. "Nine on an island, orphans all / any more the sky might fall." ![]()
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