Back in June, I found a bunch of books that people had tossed in the trash, and I rescued them all and brought them home to love them. In that stash, I was delighted to find this book, which I remember from my childhood and loved.
Dangerous Island, by Helen Mather-Smith Mindlin, is an excellent chapter book for young readers, or a great read-aloud book for the younger set. Three children visiting the New Jersey seaside are cast adrift in the Atlantic Ocean when the raft from which they are fishing pulls its moorings loose in an unusually high tide. Eleven-year-old Frank and his nine-year-old sister Dorothy, along with their friend Pug (also eleven) must rely on their own resources and ingenuity to stay alive after their raft crashes on an island. There is a cave on the island in which the children can shelter … but what are the mysterious markings on the island’s cave walls?
And there is a danger that neither the children nor their frantic parents are aware of. This is a legendary island which appears briefly only once in every few centuries. The children know the legend, of course, but it’s not until they notice landmarks disappearing that they realise their peril. Will the frantic, desperately searching adults find the children before their island refuge disappears beneath the waves for another century?
Neither you nor your children will ever forget the compelling, suspenseful, and mysterious story of Dangerous Island.