An Island of My Own

Joan Buchanan is a children’s writer and storyteller. She is the
author of Taking Care of My Cold!, What If I Were in Charge?, Nothing
Else But Yams for Supper!, and The Nana Rescue.

As this well-researched young-adult novel opens, 15-year-old Rowan is
starting a summer research project on an isolated island off the west
coast of Vancouver Island. Ensconced in a rustic cabin of her dreams,
she hopes to find some privacy from her noisy cousins and to prove
herself to her journalist parents in Rwanda. The pristine island she is
staying on is threatened with development. As Rowan’s commitment to
saving a rare group of sea otters grows, she learns to trust herself and
get along with others.

Rowan’s interspersed journal entries enable the author both to
explore Rowan’s feelings and to convey, through Rowan’s research,
scientific and historical information about sea otters and their
habitat. The novel is effective in its treatment of relationships and
balanced in its characterizations. The owner who is forced to sell the
island and the real-estate developer are believable characters with
understandable, not evil, motivations.

Spalding’s writing is fluid and competent. In a few cases, the
teenagers’ dialogue may have been improved by less-sophisticated word
choices.

An Island of My Own is highly recommended, especially for those with an
interest in wildlife and the environment.