Bibliographical information:
Orr, Wendy. Nim's Island. Illus. Kerry Millard. New York: Dell Yearling, 1999.
School Library Journal Review
Brief summary:
Nim Rusoe lives with her father on a secret tropical island, where they have gone to escape the Troppo Tourists whose intrusive sight-seeing caused the death of Nim's marine biologist mother. Nim's father sets off on a three-day trip to study plankton, leaving Nim on the island with her cell phone and e-mail (courtesy of a satellite dish and solar panels) and with her animal friends (a sea lion, a marine iguana, and a sea turtle). Jack's boat is damaged by a freak storm, delaying his return. While he's gone, Nim develops an e-mail friendship with an author whose accounts of heroic adventures she admires.
Comments:
The story is well told and entertaining, but requires suspension of disbelief in strange combinations. Nim's friendships with island animals and her close encounter with an erupting volcano seem to fit in this imagined world, but the terrible Troppo Tourists don't seem quite right to me.
Grade/Age level:
The School Library Journal says grades 2-5, and Publishers Weekly says ages 9-12. My ten-year-old's tepid response suggests that grades 2-4 is probably closer.
Cautions:
--Lisa Gordis
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