Product Description

When the kindly old aunts decide that they need help caring for creatures who live on their hidden island, they know that adults can't be trusted. What they need are a few special children who can keep a secret-a secret as big as a magical island. And what better way to get children who can keep really big secrets, than to kidnap them! (After all, some children just plain need to be kidnapped.) Don't miss this wildly inventive and funny read from master storyteller Eva Ibbotson.

"Readers will not be able to put [Island of the Aunts] down! A fine choice for fantasy lovers." (School Library Journal, starred review)

"Eva Ibbotson does magic, humor, and fantasy for ages 8 to 88+, and you'll wish her books were never-ending, so enchanting are her characters and fiendishly funny her plots!" (Book Sense)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #248875 in Books
• Brand: Book Depot
• Published on: 2001-09-10
• Released on: 2001-09-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 281 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Three aging aunts who need help caring for their magical animals resort to kidnapping suitable candidates. PW wrote, "The author's exquisite sense of humor plus an imaginative and memorable cast of characters make this a rollicking escapade." Ages 8-12.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-It isn't easy taking care of an entire island and its needy, sometimes magical inhabitants and visitors, so the caregivers, Aunts Myrtle, Etta, and Coral, decide to kidnap three children from London to help them with such tasks as cleaning mermaids who were caught in an oil slick and coaxing an egg-bound boobrie to lay its enormous eggs. Two of the children, Fabio and Minette, turn out to be enthusiastic workers who grow to love the island and their charges, but Lambert Sprott is a cell-phone-addicted brat. In fact, it is Lambert's nefarious father who, in rescuing his son, makes a near-successful attempt to exploit the isle's magical creatures for his own gain. The tone of this book is as no-nonsense as stern but kind Aunt Etta. No mercy is shown to self-obsessed, environment-polluting grown-ups and nasty, ill-behaved children, but sanctimony is held at bay by the dry humor that permeates the story. The plunder of the sanctuary by Mr. Sprott and his crew is filled with scenes of real menace and suspense-readers will not be able to put the book down until they know for sure that all the island's inhabitants are safe and sound. The 14 black-and-white illustrations add quiet charm and humor. A fine choice for fantasy lovers, especially fans of E. Nesbit, Edward Eager, and Jane Langton.
Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. Overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for some very exotic creatures, three elderly sisters come to a big decision: they must kidnap some children to help them with their work. The sisters travel to England and return with three children, two of whom are quite glad to be out of their unhappy normal lives, and one whose presence is really a mistake. Ibbotson uses familiar creatures, such as mermaids and selkies, and gives them extended families--for instance, a mermaid grandmother and a mermaid baby. At once funny and poignant, the story is a fascinating tapestry comprising vivid human characters, powerfully imagined magical creatures, and an engrossing plot, which Ibbotson has put together with wry British humor reminiscent of Hilary McKay's The Exiles (1992). Susan Dove Lempke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

One of Ibbotson's best!
Etta, Coral and Myrtle are three eccentric aunts who dwell on an island where they take care of the creatures who live there, including some very unusual ones: selkies, a boobrie (a sort of cousin of the dodo), mermaids, and a stoorworm (an Icelandic wingless dragon). Since the aunts are getting old, they need some younger people to help out and take over when they're gone, so they decide to kidnap, or "choose," three children who are unappreciated by their families. As usual with Eva Ibbotson's books, the story is filled with idiosyncratic characters, likable and unlikable (and the latter, of course, are hilariously obnoxious!). There's a kraken who's not at all like the usual sea monster; he's the Soul of the Sea, who patrols the ocean with his Healing Hum, the Song of the Sea. This is one of Ms. Ibbotson's best (and they're all very good!). Note: This was originally published in the U.K. under the title "Monster Mission."

Island of the Aunts
Island of the Aunts is an imaginative story of an Island that not only is the habitat for normal gulls, seals and dolphins, but also selkies, mermaids and wingless dragons, not to mention a couple of ghosts. There are five aunts who originally cared for these creatures, but one of them went to foreign countries to stop people from eating rare animals, and the other was a snotty stuck-up sister who went and got filthy rich by marrying a man with three types of toilet refreshener in his bathroom. Now there are only three aunts still remaining on the island and if you want to know what happens to these aunts on the endless journey to keep the island a secret and find worthy children to watch over the island when the aunts die, read this beautifully written story Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson.

If you have read this book already and enjoyed it then two other books similar to this one also by Eva Ibbotson are Which Witch and The Secret of Platform Thirteen.

Identical to Monster Mission
Before I review the book, I wanted to comment on something. As you may have read from other reviewers, this book is identical in text/content to another book called "Monster Mission" from the same author. Please don't blame the author for this, as the problem lies with two different publishers both owning rights to print the book. (Puffin, and Macmillan) The book by one publisher has a different title and different cover art but it is the same book, word for word. This happened to another Ibbotson book "The Haunting of Hiram C. Hopgood" and "The Haunting of Granite Falls", are identical as well. To make it more confusing, I bought a book before these US releases, "The Haunting of Hiram" in Canada, and it is also the same book with yet another cover and title.

As long as you know BEFORE you buy, it's OK since you can pick which cover art you prefer. I happen to like the Macmillan cover more than the Puffin cover on both books myself, but at least I could choose. The down side of all this, is that I think that buyers are hesitant to rush to buy a new Ibbotson book until they learn more about is, as they are afraid it may duplicate a book they have. This gets harder when you are buying for someone else.

Now, the book that is for sale on this page "Island of the Aunts", is a great story. It is about three aunts that live on a magical island, whose mission is to care for the magic and mythical creatures of the world, mending them when they are hurt and that sort of thing. As they are getting up in years, they decide they need someone to take their place and it will take some time to train them. They know that it must be children, as they could understand the magic better and believe what they are seeing. So these kind gentle souls decide the best way to get them to the island is to kidnap them! They travel to London to take their time studying different kids to find those that have the right tempemperment and the best chance of success... they need good kind-hearted, smart kids. They find some but, also accidentaly steal another kid who is a beastly mean brat. To make matters worse a ship has arrived to pollute the island and exploit the creatures. This story is sweet and hilarious, dripping with suspense, full of imagination and memorable characters.