Aguiar’s exciting debut novel is a cross between <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Peter Pan and <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Lost. Thirteen-year-old Maya Nelson is sick of living at sea on the <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Pamela Jane with her brother, Simon, and baby sister, Penny, while her parents conduct research. After a sudden storm, Maya’s parents fall overboard and Maya desperately sails the boat, landing on Tamarind, an island that has been the setting for ongoing stories told by her father and that has been cut off from the outside world. Ruled by pirates and devastated by civil war, the island poses one peril after another. As Maya and Simon hike through dense jungle, tending to Penny, they meet dynamic characters including the orphan Helix, a jaguar-riding child stealer and a girl who looks uncannily like Maya. When pirates kidnap Simon and Penny, Maya must race to find her parents and rescue her siblings. Developed with seeming ease, each new character advances the plot logically and fluidly. The storytelling, intricate as it is, builds to a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. All signs point to a sequel—one that readers won’t want to miss. Ages 10–14. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Oct.)

Maya has spent her whole life in the close quarters of the Pamela Jane with her marine biologist parents, her younger brother Simon, and her baby sister, and she's ready for a normal life on land. After a storm washes their parents overboard and blows the ship off course, the children manage to steer the boat to an unknown island. Turns out, the island, populated by exotic creatures and surrounded by pirates, is the one from their father's bedtime stories. As they search for their parents, the children face many dangers and see many strange sights n-eating vines, a child-stealing sorceress, giants, mermaids d find themselves caught in a war over a mysterious substance called ophalla. The more they learn about the island, they more obvious the connections become with their parents' unusual research and the shadowy origins of the Pamela Jane. Maya is resourceful and intelligent as well as sympathetic, and the large cast of characters she interacts with are all distinct. Part mystery, part fantasy, part survival story, this rousing adventure has something for everyone.

After their boat is knocked off course in a storm and their marine biologist parents are tossed overboard, Maya, Simon, and baby Penny land at Tamarind, an unusual island. They encounter unimaginable obstacles and stumble across a mysterious and powerful element that's at the crux of the island's strife. Fast-paced action and heart-pounding adventure will leave readers ready for a sequel.

Stranded on a lost island, a teen faces nail-biting adventures searching for her missing parents in this fantasy cliffhanger. Maya has lived her 13 years aboard the Pamela Jane sailing through the Caribbean with her marine biologist parents, her brother Simon and baby sister. Until recently Maya loved life at sea, but now all she wants is to live with her grandmother in Bermuda, go to school and have friends. During a freak storm, Maya's parents are washed overboard while winds propel the Pamela Jane to Tamarind, an unknown island populated by fantastical plants and creatures. In breathtaking succession, Maya and Simon encounter carnivorous vines, flying fish, treacherous pirates, a mad zoologist, giant turtles, warring soldiers, a tribe living in treetops, a mysterious lady riding a jaguar, singing mermaids, giants and a glowing substance called ophalla . As she bounces from one adventure to the next, Maya forgets all about having a normal life and longs just to have her family reunited. Spunky kids, perilous pursuits and marine mystery make for a smashing good read. (Fantasy. 10-14)

Gr 5-8 Maya, 13; her younger brother, Simon; and baby Penny are left adrift and alone on the ship on which they live after their marine-scientist parents go overboard during a mighty storm. When the storm pushes the Pamela Jane into the land of Tamarind, the children fall into the middle of a long war over a magical mineral. This war has decimated the civilization and left the people to fear for their lives. Moving man-eating vines entrap the children and their ship, tribes of terrified people live in trees in the clouds, a Stealer of children enslaves the young to dig in her mine for the precious mineral, and pirates lurk around every cove. It is up to Maya and Simon to find their parents, and in the process, they just might help end the war. Each detail of this fantasy is crafted with care; readers will be drawn into this dangerous, magical world where anything is possible and nothing can be fully explained. The adventure moves along at a fast clip, and, as each chapter passes, the children develop more as characters. The language and style of writing evoke wonderful images of fantastical creatures such as giants and mermaids. Young people will be transported to a world so different from the one they currently inhabit, following along as Maya and Simon escape their adversaries and struggle to survive in this hostile land. Jennifer-Lynn Draper, Children's Literature Consultant, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada

Treasure Island meets The Lost World in this fantasy that pits three siblings-thirteen-year-old Maya, nine-year-old Simon, and eight-month-old Penny-against storms at sea, shipwreck, carnivorous plants, pirates, slavery, jungles, giants, and war. They engage in their struggles while searching for their lost parents on an island that does not exist in the known world. Maya, dissatisfied with life at sea while roaming the world with her marine biologists parents, longs for life on solid ground, but not the solid ground she encounters when a storm washes her parents overboard. Their boat, the Pamela Dean, crosses the Blue Line, taking the children out of this world and into that of the Lost Island of Tamarind. Joining them in their adventures is Helix, a teenage boy with a mysterious past who saves them from carnivorous vines and puts them on the trail to Port Town, where Maya is convinced that they will find their parents. One adventure leads to another, in true Perils of Pauline fashion, from their capture by the Child Stealer; escape in a plane piloted by another captive, an anthropologist who managed to cross the Blue Line in her plane; and their subsequent pursuit through the streets of Port Town to an encounter with pirates that places them in the middle of a war that has devastated the island. The children are finally reunited with their parents, but enough plot threads are left dangling for further adventures of Maya and company. Fans of adventure fantasy will enjoy the nonstop action and breakneck pace.-Bonnie Kunzel.