  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 05/01/2014 Gr 4–7—In this exciting series debut, 12-year-old Sarah Robinson responds with ill-grace to her father's remarriage after six years as a widower. She is unfriendly to her two stepbrothers, younger Nacho and Marco, her own age. She's even worse to her stepmother. In an effort to bring everyone closer, her dad and stepmom opt to book a family honeymoon on a luxury yacht. A terrible storm, loss of the skipper, and subsequent landing on an island that initially appears inviting but quickly proves otherworldly and dangerous, cause the warring kids to reluctantly work together. These very human protagonists respond in believable ways to their new family situation while encountering freakish animals, bizarrely dangerous weather, and a creepy, empty house. This is intensely readable and will be excellent for reluctant readers. Should be popular with fans of adventure, fantasy, and the slightly sinister.—B. Allison Gray, Goleta Public Library, CA - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 07/01/2014 “Angry” doesn’t quite cover how 12-year-old Sarah feels when her dad marries a gold-digging flight attendant and moves his new wife and her two sons into their house. On the flip side of the coin, Marco is resentful that he and his little brother have to leave their lives in Texas because their mom was duped into marrying some guy who dazzled her with his money. Now, as if only to intensify the misery, they are all being forced to take a let’s-get-to-know-one-another “family” vacation aboard a private boat, making avoidance of one another impossible. When a fierce storm leaves them shipwrecked, it soon becomes apparent that something is “off” with their tropical refuge. Alternating between Sarah’s and Marco’s perspectives, narrative tensions run high as the kids try to adjust to their new life and the stress of their disastrous vacation. A brisk and simple read, this adventure just gets going when the book comes to an end, leaving the story wide open for a sequel. - Copyright 2014 Booklist. Bulletin for the Center... - 09/01/2014 It’s not the first time this literary ship has sailed: a fractured family goes on a sailing trip to bind its wounds, and disaster ensues. The source of the dysfunction in Bodeen’s version is Mr. Robinson’s new marriage to Yvonna Murillo, a flight attendant he met only recently. The union is greeted with an open mind by the younger Murillo boy, Nacho, but execrated by his elder brother, Marco (who believes Mr. Robinson only wants a trophy wife) and by Sarah Robinson (who is certain her new stepmother is a gold digger.) Their Fiji-bound sixty-footer promptly hits a storm, the captain dies, and the Robinson family (yes-Robinson-you get it now) is stranded on an invitingly lush island. Any kid who knows the genre knows the drill: family members salvage what they can from the boat, pair up or self-isolate according to character trait, and wait for the terrors to begin. The fact is, though, that many middle-graders have not yet experienced the pleasant chills of the stranded-on-a-mysterious-island trope, and this entry title in a new series, for all its predictability, delivers just what makes the theme so hardy. There are provisions at the ready for creative deployment, protective parents out of their depth, kids testing their mettle, and lots of creepy things that go bump in the tropical night. The debut book takes some time to establish the toxic family relationships, and the scare factor gets less page space than many readers might wish. However, giant tree-crawling crabs, an empty house that bodes no good, and an unconscious girl who has left a warning in the sand should leave readers plenty impatient for the next volume. EB - Copyright 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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