Nowhere Island

When Gil on an impulse stows away on a car in an effort to escape what he sees as a bleak future, he little imagines what the new future will hold. He finds himself on an island – but not surrounded by water, but a motorway. Nor is he alone. Grayson, Riley and Pez also escaping their past. Together they create something special. But how long can this last?

From BB to Paulsen, Ballantyne to Southall and Morpurgo, stories of survival have always captured the imagination of young readers. This latest addition to the genre will not disappoint. While there are still some areas in the world where a person might find themselves having to survive, it is perhaps more difficult to create the circumstances leading to it. Tansy Unsworth looks no further than the great highways that cross the United States. Here there are forgotten, invisible areas – the verges and the central islands of small copses and tangled undergrowth. It is a clever and entirely plausible scenario.  Such a setting also allows her to establish an ingenious survival technique. It is only Pez who has a background that has equipped her with real survival skills. At the heart of the narrative is the relationship between the four young people, all very different but all sharing something important; they all feel betrayed and rejected by the adults in their lives. They are outsiders – and now survivors. And when faced with a real threat, they find the strength together to challenge it – and move on. This is a well written narrative that really does draw the reader in and keeps the pages turning to the very end.