Maria's island by Victoria Hislop. Illus. by Gill Smith

Victoria Hislop brings us a dramatic and moving story set in the same world as her international seller The Island.

Maria’s Island is a story told to us by Maria Petrakis who is one of the children in the original version of The Island. This is the story of her life written for children, which I very much enjoyed reading as an adult. It was a great historical fiction book.

Maria (yiayia, which is grandmother in Greek) shares her family story with her granddaughter Rita, who comes to stays with her every summer on the island of Crete. Rita lives in England and visits her yiayia every year. One summer, Rita’s parents decide to leave her on her own with yiayia for two nights while they explore the other side of Crete. Rita is excited. Rita helps yiayia with some dusting and discovers a stone paperweight with pictures of houses and some photos. One of the photos Rita has never seen before and asks yiayia about it. It is a photo of yiayia’s sister and her parents in a Cretan village called Plaka. Rita did not know her grandmother had a sister and asked her about her and the village she came from.

The next day Yiayia Maria takes Rita on a bus trip to the village Plaka. From here we read an amazing story of Maria’s life and her family in Plaka and the island of Spinalonga, which could be seen across the harbour. Spinalonga was a former leper colony of Greece. We also learn about the ancient and misunderstood disease of leprosy.

Maria’s Island was a great book that explores the themes of stigma and the treatment of people who are different. This was a common practice in years gone by and still is a little today.

Maria’s story is remarkable and very realistic. I do know of a few islands in Greece that were used for people that society in the past wanted to hide them from the rest of the world. As much as this story was sad it was happy too.

Maria’s Island is definitely a book I would be recommending to readers and one I would use as a class novel.

Gill Smith's amazing full–colour illustrations added magic to this story. I felt like I was there as the story was being told. Crete is a beautiful island and Smith’s illustrations captured its beauty and its people. Can’t wait till I can go back there again.

Themes: Islands, Leprosy, Crete, Greece.

Maria Komninos