This is the final book in the Island trilogy, which I'm reading aloud to my younger daughter.
In the previous book, Survival, Will had been unintentioThis is the final book in the Island trilogy, which I'm reading aloud to my younger daughter.
In the previous book, Survival, Will had been unintentionally shot by a stray bullet from one of the thugs and the bullet was lodged in his thigh. Now, Will is showing signs of an infection which could be deadly. The kids have to get off the island and get help for Will, or he could die! They hatch a plan: When the smugglers return to the island, J.J. will stow away on their plane. Because he's the rich kid of a celebrity, he hopes the thugs will call his father and trade him for cash. It's a risky plan, but it's all they've got. Will is getting worse, and Ian says that if they don't get rescued soon that they will have no choice but to cut open Will's leg and try to dig out the bullet themselves.
The timeline periodically jumps back to 1945, to explain more about the atomic bomb that the kids found on the island and how it came to be there.
I really enjoyed the fast pace of the book, and it was a race against time to save Will. The kids really learned to work as a unit, and they had no choice but to trust each other.
I'm planning to read more of Korman's books with my daughter!
I read this book aloud to my younger daughter, and we really enjoyed it! Personally, I love survival stories so this was right up my alley.
Six teens aI read this book aloud to my younger daughter, and we really enjoyed it! Personally, I love survival stories so this was right up my alley.
Six teens are thrown together for a one-month adventure at sea off the coast of Guam. To me, that sounds like a treat but it's not. The kids are taking part in a program called Charting a New Course designed as a punishment of sorts for wayward teens, where they learn discipline and teamwork and have no access to computers, the internet, iPhones, or any other electronic devices which is perhaps that worst part of the punishment for them!
The most annoying kid in the group is J.J., who is the richest in the bunch and thinks the rules don't apply to him. Because of his stupidity, the Captain gets swept overboard during a storm. The sailboat takes on too much water and, despite tossing all non-essentials overboard, the boat is still slowly sinking. One morning, the kids awaken and discover that the first mate (and only adult remaining on board), Mr. Radford, has abandoned them. It appears that he has taken the boat's wooden dinghy and half of their food rations and decided to save himself rather than go down with the ship!
The kids have a brilliant plan with pumping the water out of the engine room and taking the engine apart to let it dry and put it back together. The plan nearly works, but there is an explosion that blasts three of the kids overboard and sets the ship on fire.
The book ends on a cliffhanger, and two of the kids are MIA. We don't know whether they have drowned or if they survived, but the sextet is split up for the time being. Hopefully, they will find each other.
I love Luke, who has become like a leader to the group. He has a good head on his shoulders, and he cares for others. When he was thrown overboard and managed to cling to a part of the ship that kept him afloat, he didn't think twice about jumping back into the turbulent sea to save one of the other kids who was too weak to tread water and was ready to go under. Ian is another kid that I admire. He's very intelligent and is one of those people that can remember everything they watch or read, and some of that knowledge that is filed away in his brain proves to be very useful! I can't believe that Radford was so selfish that he left those kids to fend for themselves! How shameful!! I don't know how anyone could do that, to leave six children to drown. I'm still holding out hope that somehow the Captain has survived, fingers crossed!
Korman is a new-to-me author, and I'm definitely buying more of his books! I love the fast pace of this story, and it was one of those books that I was tempted to read ahead after I put my daughter to bed, LOL! I can't wait to continue with the next book in the series, Survival.
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