The Islanders

By Mary Alice Monroe

Book Overview

Eleven-year-old Jake's life has just turned upside-down. His father was wounded in Afghanistan, and his mother is going to leave to care for him. That means Jake's spending the summer on tiny Dewees Island with his grandmother. The island is a nature sanctuary--no cars or paved roads, no stores or restaurants. To make matters worse, Jake's grandmother doesn't believe in cable or the internet. Which means Jake has no cell phone, no video games...and no friends. This is going to be the worst summer ever! He's barely on the island before he befriends two other kids--Macon, another "summer kid," and Lovie, know-it-all who lives there and shows both Jake and Macon the ropes of life on the island. All three are struggling with their own family issues and they quickly bond, going on adventures all over Dewees Island. Until one misadventure on an abandoned boat leads to community service. Their punishment? Mandatory duty on the Island Turtle Team. The kids must do a daily dawn patrol of the beach on the hunt for loggerhead sea turtle tracks. When a turtle nest is threatened by coyotes, the three friends must find a way to protect it. Can they save the turtle nest from predators? Can Jake's growing love for the island and its inhabitants (be they two-legged, four-legged, feathered, or finned) help to heal his father?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1534427279
• ISBN13: 9781534427273
• Release Date: June 2021
• Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.8" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 8 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 6

Customer Reviews

Not just for Little Kids!

I have read all of Ms. Monroe's books! I just finished this first in The Islanders. I am 70 and loved the kid's adventures! I spent about 10 summer vacations camping on the Isle of Palms in my youth and throughout my teens with family at The Sand Dollar Campground. I spent long days on the beach at the Deweese end of the Island wishing I could visit Deweese. We gathered buckets full of Sand Dollars I still have displayed in my home. We didn't know there was a way to get to Deweese in the 60's and 70's. I saw my first Turtle tracks and Mama turtle there. Those two Islands are my favorite places on earth and will always be in my heart! I love how the characters intertwine with all the other Beach House and Low Country books. I have planted Butterfly Weed and many Monarch friendly flowers after reading the butterfly books. I appreciate how Ms. Monroe is telling the story of our declining environment to maybe influence humans to be more considerate of the earth we share with other living souls. I cringe with the weather reports with hurricanes, floods, fires , and melting glaciers. I will miss Low Country books of Ms. Dorothea Benton Frank with her passing. She showed her sincere caring of the environment through her writing. I wish I could have been a Turtle Lady! Thanks to the all the writers of the Low Country.