Orphan Island

Year after year the little green boat comes to Orphan Island bringing a new child and taking the eldest back. It is the new eldest’s job to take care of the new younger child. This year, the boat comes to take Jinny’s best friend, Dean, away leaving her as the new eldest, to take care of the quiet, stubborn, but curious, Ess. Jinny’s job is to teach Ess about the island and how to take care of it.

Everyday the nine children wake up to a shape dancing sky, warm oceans, and each other. Then one day the boat arrives to take Jinny away, and Jinny feels exactly how she thought she would feel: uncertain. She doesn’t want to leave this island where everything is perfect and they live happily. Why should she trust this boat, that no one knows where it goes? But Jinny knows the rhyme that they all live by. “Nine on an island, orphans all; anymore the sky might fall.” Jinny will have to make the precarious choice. Leave her perfect life on the island, or risk staying?

Laurel Snyder’s Orphan Island is an enchanting, genuine, and haunting novel. Snyder dives into all kinds of feelings and passions, and they are all fully expressed. I love the world that she created and how Snyder made it so vibrant through her characters.