Island Book (Island Book #1)

by Evan Dahm (Author)

Island Book (Island Book #1)
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade
Series: Island Book

Set sail with Island Book, Evan Dahm's epic graphic novel about friendship, teamwork, and the wisdom we gain when we face the unknown with bravery and an open heart.

Sola is cursed. (At least, that's what everyone tells her.) It all started the day the Monster came to the island. While others fled, Sola stood before the creature, alone and unafraid. Since then she's been treated like an outcast. Shamed and feared for an event she doesn't understand, Sola sets out to sea looking for answers.

In uncharted waters far from home, she discovers that her island isn't alone in the endless ocean--and the Monster isn't the only life to be found there.

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Publishers Weekly

Young Sola, a round-headed creature with gleaming golden eyes, lives on an island beset by a marauding sea monster. When it attacked the island, it was drawn to Sola in particular, making her an outcast among her fellow islanders ("Cursed girl," mutters one crone). Determined to confront the unknown as courageously as Ila, her astronomer guardian, Sola sets out to sea, gaining two companions along the way: Hunder from Fortress Island, a young tortoise-headed warrior who's all bluster, and Wick, a glib poet from the Isle of Wind. Her island-hopping journey introduces her to creatures welcoming and terrifying, and leads finally to the monster itself. Using polished, sure storytelling skills, Dahm offers shipwrecks, battles, and unflagging action. Underlying the story's events is an allegory about how real knowledge comes only from seeing for oneself ("They don't want to find the monster," says Wick about her countrymen. "They have their verses about it... their allusions to it... none of them have seen more than a glimpse of it!"). While the ending leaves the monster undefeated and its nature unexplained, the characters are tempered by their ordeal--and perhaps there's room for a sequel. Ages 8-11. (May)

Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

Island Book is aimed at middle-grade readers and will hopefully unlock new worlds and exciting adventures. With a rich bibliography already available, Dahm is an ideal author for young readers to get hooked on. —Paste

Using polished, sure storytelling skills, Dahm offers shipwrecks, battles, and unflagging action. —Publishers Weekly

Dahm's impressively compact storytelling often seems to encompass entire conversations, events, and ideas in a few frames and a few words. Absorbing, thoughtful worldbuilding and adventure. —Kirkus

Evan Dahm
Evan Dahm is a cartoonist living in Brooklyn, NY. He's from North Carolina and graduated from Appalachian State University in 2009. Since 2006, he's been making comic books online and in print, including the fantasy graphic novels Rice Boy, Order of Tales, the award-winning fantasy-biographical epic Vattu, The Harrowing of Hell, and the Island Book trilogy.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781626729506
Lexile Measure
170
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
First Second
Publication date
May 20, 2019
Series
Island Book
BISAC categories
JUV052000 - Juvenile Fiction | Monsters
JUV008040 - Juvenile Fiction | Comics & Graphic Novels | Action & Adventure
JUV008080 - Juvenile Fiction | Comics & Graphic Novels | Fantasy
Library of Congress categories
Adventure and adventurers
Cartoons and comics
Comics (Graphic works)

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