The Island at the End of Everything

"I was talking about a golden age of children’s literature and the author of this book, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, is up there. She started off as a poet. She writes books that feel like they’ve been around forever, and she’s only in her mid-20s. So she’s precociously brilliant. Her books are objects of excellence. This book is for the upper end of the 8 to 12 range, so this is for a really pretty sophisticated 11, 12-year old reader. Yes, the girl is called Ami and her mother has leprosy. They’ve only ever lived on this island. It’s based on Culion Island in the Philippines. In the beginning, Ami is content living on her island. The descriptions of tropical island life, the heat, are exquisitely done. You’re there—the colour, the intensity, a beautifully described relationship between mother and daughter, and the mother with this dreadful illness. Very early on in the book, the island is formalised as a leper colony. The little girl can’t stay with her mother anymore, because she doesn’t have leprosy, so she’s taken away. The story is about her trying to get back to her mother, and it’s full of adventure. There is a poignancy to it. But there’s a joy, as well. It’s never overwhelmingly sad. I do think that children have powerful emotions, especially at this age. They are grappling with sadness, and I think ideas like that are very, very good to confront when they’re confronted with the sophistication that Kiran Millwood Hargrave can bring to it. There are big themes here. It’s adventurous, it’s bold. This background allows Ami, the young heroine, to show her bravery, her independence, her morality. These are things that young readers are allowed to do too, by reading the book. They’re allowed to experience their own bravery. Utterly. I find the writing magical. Every sentence is just full of life. She has this zesty way of writing. It’s about bravery and action and strength. Just to give you a taster, here is one of the sentences that stood out for me: “This is when your heart hardens in your chest, like petals turning into pebbles.” I think you can learn a lot about writing and creative writing through reading her. You’re not really aware of that when you’re reading, you’re lost in the story, but she demonstrates great writing beautifully, which is really important. Yes, she’s got loads in there. Metaphors, similes, everything."

"This is a story about a young girl who is uprooted from her simple, happy home on a tropical island called Culion in South East Asia – a place where she feels secure despite the shadow of her mother’s illness. A place that is beautiful in every way imaginable until the day she is forcibly taken away by the government because her mother has leprosy. Furthermore, the island is to become a colony for lepers. “I think you can tell that I’m not one for gritty realism. I love books that take you away from the humdrum of everyday life” Taken to an orphanage on the mainland by boat, all that Ami can think of is finding the opportunity – and the courage, to run back to her island home. You feel the heat and humidity; see and smell the extraordinary flora and fauna. All the beauty in an extraordinary cloud of butterflies that so contrasts with the ugliness of a disease like leprosy, and the fear it creates in people. There’s a quote on the back of the book that says it all: “There are some places you would not want to go. Even if I told you that we have oceans filled with sea-turtles and dolphins, or forests lush with parrots that call through air thick with warmth. Nobody comes here because they want to. This is the island of no return.”"