Shipwrecked

Three pre-adolescent British children flown out to a summer camp on Tonga end up on a deserted Pacific island following an ill-advised night-time boat race. Acutely aware of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, they then make a good attempt at looking after themselves although each still has a lot of growing up to do. This is particularly true of Sebastian, the twelve-year old narrator who got them into this plight.  But Jenny Pearson never lets moralising get too much in the way of a good joke, and basically this is a really funny story but with plenty of heart too.

Just about managing to feed themselves from abundant breadfruit trees, things take a darker turn when three turtle smugglers also land. Determinedly protective of a particular turtle who had laid her eggs in front of them, the unspotted children set about terrifying the pirates with fearsome growls supposedly coming from a giant beast. Credibility at this stage becomes harder, and there is also more emphasis on the young narrator’s divided loyalties between memories of his upright father and his more wayward and now absent mother. But good humour remains too, with the author expert in reproducing children’s cynical put-downs directed at each other, more often said just out of hearing.

Less successful is her over-use of black capitals whenever a particular word or phrase is thought to need extra emphasis. Nick East’s comic illustrations are also out of keeping for a story which ultimately is trying to say something important about human relationships. But all can be forgiven for an author as lively and amusing as this one, and if her excellent story also ends up pushing young readers into trying out Lord of the Flies for themselves, so much the better.