Advance copy. ( )

This book is just downright fun. I picked it up because Elizabeth Haydon writes an AMAZING adult fantasy series (Symphony of Ages, if you want to look into that), and I wanted to see how her middle grade stands up against that. The answer I found: The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme might actually be better than Symphony of Ages.

The Floating Island centers around a 50-year-old “Nain” (literally french for dwarf — very cool wordplay there) named Ven, who is just reaching his majority by his race’s standards. He is the son of a shipmaker and when he goes to inspect his father’s newest ship, he embarks on what seems to be a never-ending adventure full of twists, surprises, and magic. This feels like an old-fashioned, true adventure story to me, and it’s something I would have DEVOURED when I was twelve — mermaids, dwarves, pirates, kings, intrigue, revenants, magic — this book has everything I love about fantasy, and more. Even as an adult, I enjoyed it immensely. It’s well done in that it’s framed as a “true” story and these journals of Ven were recently discovered and gathered and published by the author. The narrative itself is interesting in that it switches between straight-up journal entries told from Ven’s perspective and regular narration. This definitely allowed the story to strike a balance between being fast-paced while also remaining true to the journal idea. The illustrations by Brett Helquist are great and add a lot to the story in terms of being able to imagine everything and giving credence to the journal idea.

My favorite part is how this story focuses on what it means to have a home, what friendship/family truly means, and how our lives are bettered by being surrounded by kind people. This is very much a coming of age story, and Ven is able to find his bravery in order to save his friends and stand up for what he thinks is right. He learns how to find out the truth and speak for himself, instead of just going along with whatever people tell him. It’s a great lesson for kids, especially as they find themselves growing up and also trying to figure out how to make their own decisions and be their own person. (And probably could help adults like myself be reminded of the important things in life.)

I can’t recommend this enough, I loved every second of reading this book and am very much looking forward to the sequel.

Also posted on Purple People Readers. ( )

The floating island is about a boy named Ven. Ven is a ship builder, but he wants to ride ships instead. Ven' s father wants him to inspect their latest ship. Chapters later the ship is attacked by fire pirates. The pirates want Ven to lead them to the floating island. When Ven finds the ship he runs away with his friend Saili. They find the shore and the pirates find them as well. Soon a rescue ship appears and fights the pirates. When Ven returnes he tells his story to the town.
In my opinion the book was just like treasure island. The plot was the same the bad guys were fire pirates and instead of treasure island it was floating island.
The book was not so exiting I think that the only reason I finished was to do the book report. There was one thing that thru me off and it was the book had romance in it. Ven and Saili were very odd names and every ones names were odd. In my opinion the book wasnt that good and was not very exiting.

The book written a simple uncomplicated language, temporarily typical youth language. Fast read. It presents a fantasy world without pomp information which enables easy to find yourself in this world. The book presents the adventure of a young Nain, who due to unfortunate incident has faced a completely new challenge. (diagram most fantasy books). Luckily, he meets companions who with him are facing the adversity. ( )

How does a book that includes fire pirates, mysterious islands, mermaids, restless ghosts, and evil spirits still manage to be so dull? For an adventure story, this was pretty plodding. It reads slowly, it's too long, and (frankly) it's not all that compelling. It's not bad, but I don't see myself pushing this one on unsuspecting middle-schoolers. I'm suddenly not surprised the copy at my library has such lackluster circulation.

And I have no idea why there's a dragon on the cover; I don't think there's a dragon anywhere in the whole book.

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