Monster Island by George Ivanoff

After losing her job at the University, Bernie’s mum (a promising scientist who is interested in Cryptozoology) has been offered a job on a mysterious island in Bass strait.  Bernie is 13 years old and worried that his mum might become a “mystery disappearance” in this part of the world, so he decides to stow away in the Limo that collects her and ultimately onto the mysterious ship that takes her to Monster island. He hides out on the island assisted by Ivy, the rebellious daughter of her mum’s new boss.  Ivy knows that showing her new friend around the island will annoy her father, but she enjoys introducing Bernie to the unusual inhabitants and plants of the island – most of which are dinosaurs, strange magical giant Fungi and other unusual creatures from the distant past.  It is all beyond Bernie’s imagination and soon he and Ivy are not just exploring the island, they are investigating the appearance of some mysterious drones.  However, when Bernie is discovered on the island the adults do not believe their story about the threat to the island’s unusual inhabitants from someone outside and so he and Ivy, with the help of Lea-Lea (a very intelligent dinosaur friend) try to figure it out for themselves.

This fast-paced book will appeal to older readers especially those reluctant to tackle longer stories.  George Ivanoff is an author based in Melbourne whose books include the You Choose series, the Survival Guide series and the Other Worlds series. Many feature science fiction based themes and characters as well as children solving problems together in quite unusual places. Included are a few handy pages at the back of the book explaining some of the unusual things mentioned in the book encouraging further investigation by the reader.

Themes: Monsters, Islands, Dinosaurs, Friendship.

Gabrielle Anderson