School Library Journal Review

Gr 3-6-Four 12-year-old cousins are spending the summer with Grandma Gee on Gull Island in this book by Elizabeth Doyle Carey (Little, 2005). Each girl has a distinct personality-artist, bookworm, and so forth. The book focuses on Hillary who is facing her parents' impending divorce. Her lack of security in her family situation leads her to revive an old island rivalry between the Callahans and the Bickets-the planting of a clan flag on another, much smaller island. To complete her task, she must enlist her cousins' help, and together they must refurbish a small boat, research the tides and channels, and learn and apply sailing skills. The rivalry threatens to revive bad feelings on the island, but Hillary finds a way to reconcile the two battling clans and her own conflicted emotions about her parents. Read by Stina Nielsen, who gives individual voices to the characters, this title is reminiscent of series such as Trixie Belden or the Bobbsey Twins. Money never seems to be an issue, adult supervision is minimal, and the preteens are footloose and fancy-free. In fact, the text is so reminiscent of those older books that mentions of The Gap store seem jarring. Still, young readers won't notice or care. They'll just enjoy following the exploits of the four girls, and look forward to the next book in the series.-Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary School, Federal Way, WA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.