The Way to Impossible Island

A sort-of sequel to her deservedly well-received debut The Wild Way Home, but a separate and stand-alone adventure, The Way to Impossible Island once again engineers an encounter between a 21^st century child and a Stone Age contemporary. Both children, modern Dara and prehistoric Mothgirl, are angry, isolated and frustrated by restrictions imposed on them. Dara has a heart condition that leaves him physically weak and reliant on oxygen machines and pills. He’s desperate that the long awaited ‘Big Op’ will fix things for him. Mothgirl is worried about her brother Hart, first encountered in The Wild Way Home, but also furious at her ageing Pa who seems ready to give her up to a neighbouring tribe, unable to accept that his daughter has as many talents as her older brother, and unwilling to allow her to be the person she wants to be. The magic of a golden hare brings the two young people together in the most dangerous of circumstances. They meet at night on the beach by Dara’s holiday home and both nearly drown as they cross from there to the now uninhabited Lathrin Island. Kirtley succeeds brilliantly at depicting Mothgirl’s instinctive understanding of the natural world, but Dara’s appreciation of story and its power is just as important and just as convincing. Slipping fluidly from one world to the other until the two children meet, this is smoothly plotted, an original and exciting adventure story that will send readers out into woods and fields hoping to find ways into the Stone Age much as they might press the backs of wardrobes looking for Narnia. Both protagonists finish the book happier in themselves and ready to convince their families to allow them to live the lives they want. Highly recommended.