For me, a good story is one with characters I care about, and a fully-realized setting. Kyle's Island fits this bill perfectly. I also love the tight weave of the narrative with different threads I feel a need to follow, the most important being "What is on that island? Will Dad come home? Will the fishing trip end in some sort of tragedy? Will the cottage by the lake be saved or sold?"

I think young readers would thoroughly enjoy the excitement of the storm and the fun of fishing.

It is truly a multi-layered story, told with the lyricism and charity that I have come to expect in Sally Derby's writing. It takes a long time to accept that we don't know about other people -- especially in a world where the media often encourage us to be judgmental.

There are some books that I read in one sitting because I just couldn't put them down (Graceling, The Hunger Games). There are some books that take me way too long to read (HP and the Half-Blood Prince took me 6 weeks) and I struggle through them. There are some books I savor and try not to finish too quickly (Catching Fire.) There are some books that I recommend to every student (Holes) and some to those that request scary books (How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, Lake of Secrets). There are very few that have me thinking about coming home from work, taking care of the evening business (dinner, homework) and finally sitting down to read. That was Kyle's Island. I looked forward to reading it and savored it over three nights.


Kyle's relationship with his younger brother was amazing. His maturity shone through always and you just know Kyle will always be there for him. I could almost picture the lake and the sky and the cabin as the imagery was vivid. The local adults were supportive but not in an overwhelming way. The writing was wonderful.


Some of my favorite parts of the book are the fishing scenes. There are not a lot of books for those kids asking about fishing (The Young Man and the Sea is the only one off the top of my head). This book will find an audience in my library.

Sally Derby’s Kyle’s Island is story that will teach us lessons about ourselves. It’s depth and many layers made it an enlightening book to read. The characters are very realistic, and you can feel the emotions they experience as their lives are changed forever. It makes you think about your own life, about how it is similar to this, and you learn lessons about forgiveness and how to deal with bad things happening.

When Kyle and his family return to their beloved lake cottage in Michigan, his mother drops the bomb that this will be their last summer there. Newly divorced, she feels forced to sell the property to make ends meet. A veteran fisherman at age 13, and very much tuned into lake life and nature's simple pleasures, Kyle rages at the prospect and boils inwardly at his father for causing the family's upheaval. Stung by loss, and out of sorts with this unwelcome transition in his life, Kyle trudges through the days of what was supposed to be a great summer. He also makes a quest out of exploring an unihabited island in the lake. When he connects with a somewhat mysterious neighbor and takes him on fishing excursions, Kyle learns more about the island and begins to feel empathy for other people's stories. A sensitive coming-of-age tale that does not tie up ends too neatly.

I just finished Kyle's Island and I loved the book. One of the things I emphasize with my freshmen classes is developing emotional intelligence. There are many great examples in the book that I can use with them. With more and more single parent families, it was also refreshing to have a strong role model in Kyle's mother.
Thanks for a great read.

Kyle’s father left his family in February to “think things out.” Now it’s summer, and the 12-year-old and his mother and siblings are staying at their cabin by a Michigan lake, on an island that Kyle plans to explore. It’s just like always, except that this visit will be their last. With her husband gone, Kyle’s mother is forced to put the cabin, which has been in her family for years, on the market. The boy is devastated. This year is also different in that Kyle’s sisters are keeping secrets from him, and they develop a great interest in the boys who live nearby. As the summer slips away, Kyle spends most of his time fishing either alone or with his elderly neighbor, who teaches him not to take people at face value. His worst fears are realized when the cabin is sold. This story moves slowly and is primarily a study of the protagonist’s personal development. His feelings of rejection and anger ring true for someone his age, and he eventually begins to look at a situation from more than one angle. The other characters are one-dimensional and remain in the background.

Kyle Cook can't wait to get to the lake house with his mom and three siblings this summer. His father left earlier in the year and the family hasn't quite been the same ever since. When he learns his Mom has to sell the lake house, Kyle sets out to earn enough money to try and save this important piece of his childhood. Along the way, Kyle will find he has more to learn about the people around him than he thinks.

Kyle's Island is a short and breezy read and evokes memories of summer on the lake from my own childhood. Derby tunes into Kyle's young voice with ease and grace. The story is a familiar one - Kyle coping with losing a piece of his childhood is something everyone has to go through at some point in their young adult lives. Detailed descriptions of fishing and life on the lake are a bonus. Highly recommended for that male reluctant reader!

Kyle's Island gives the reader much to think about. Kyle's reluctance to face painful, even necessary changes in his life is something everybody can relate to, especially pre-teen readers. This book presents a very genuine, honest portrait of a young man's struggle with his own thoughts and feelings. He discovers that not all change is bad, and that many times we assume things about others that are not true. While there is no 'happily ever after' ending for Kyle, the reader is left with the distinct impression that Kyle is now ready to move forward rather than cling to the past. A very realistic portrait of life that many pre-teens and teens can relate to.

Picture-book writer Derby (No Mush Today) sets her first novel in a quieter time, placing it on the gentler end of the middle-grade spectrum. Kyle, a solid, loving, and responsible (nearly) 13-year-old in the 1970s, lives for his summers by the lake in upstate Michigan, where his family converges on his grandmother's tiny cottage and spends lazy days fishing, swimming, reading, and sketching. But now his grandmother has died, his father has moved out, and his mother has decided they cannot afford to keep the cottage. Furious with his father for leaving them, Kyle nevertheless strives to be a good big brother to seven-year-old Josh and to get along with his sisters. Kyle's love of rowing and fishing pervades the novel; calm scenes on the water offset his emotional turmoil. When an obese older neighbor employs him to take him fishing every morning, Kyle realizes he may be able to earn the money to keep the cottage. Kyle and his siblings often seem unnaturally mature and empathetic, but overall Derby creates a realistic rendition of family life, with a smattering of adventure, in this tender coming-of-age story.

The mysteries in Kyle's Island are the small ones: no criminals, no deaths -- but the poignant puzzles and losses of childhood. This gentle summer novel comes from an experienced author of children's books, Sally Derby (she wrote No Mush Today and The Wacky Substitute, among others). And it has a perfect blend of tension, distress, adventure, and discovery.

Thirteen-year-old Kyle has always gone to the lakeside cottage with his family each summer, where his dad taught him to fish, his mother and grandmother shared merriment with his sisters, and the neighbors all know him and like him. It's a safe place, even for his little brother Josh who's just learning to swim.

"I started down the steps to the lake. Halfway down I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, something disturbing the sparse ground cover on the hill. I stood still. Sure enough, there is was again -- a trembling of leaves right beside the next step down. Then I saw it: a little brown toad, half-hidden by a week. I bent down slowly. He didn't move. My hand shot out, and I had him. I cupped him in my palm and looked at him. He squatted there, just tickling the skin a bit. He was all angles and bright eyes. I rubbed my thumb down the skin on his back. It was dry and bumpy.

'Wait till Josh sees him,' I said."

But this year is different: Kyle's father moved out. Is he gone forever from the family? Kyle is so angry that he won't even speak with his father on the phone when it rings for his family at a neighbor's cottage. From deciding where to fish to handing the boat and teaching his younger brother the summer skills, everything seems to land on Kyle's shoulders in new and uncomfortable ways. And the worst is yet to come: Because Gram has died, and Kyle's father isn't providing an income, Kyle's mother is going to sell the cottage, uprooting the family's joy. If you can even have real joy when your father has mysteriously left you, that is ...

I loved reading Kyle's Island. It reminded me of the choices and stresses of summer "before romance," when exploring an island and finding a way to make enough summer income were all-engrossing. And Kyle's struggles with family circumstances, strange neighbors, and sisters who talk more with each other than with him felt very familiar.

For any kid who dreams of summer exploration, this will be a good read. It's also going to be a good discussion starter with youngsters whose parents are making life changes that bring discomfort and even displacement. There's a season of freedom packed into this story, along with a warm armful of hope.

PS: The publisher, Charlesbridge, offers a short activity and discussion guide to accompany the book.

This children's chapter book (ARC) was sent to me by Charlesbridge Publishing. Publication date on this book is February, 2010. It's for ages between 10-13.

Every summer, Kyle's family goes to small lake in Michigan for the summer. But this year is different. Gram has died, Dad moved out, and Mom tells him they will have to sell the cottage because the cost of upkeep is too much. That's almost more than Kyle can handle, and none of the children are happy with decision.

Kyle likes to fish, so he spends some time alone thinking. He finds an island that has shack built on it, but he doesn't tell the others about. He's devastated that the cottage must be sold and he hasn't forgiven his father for moving out, so the island is some comfort but doesn't solve his problems.

Then he gets an opportunity to take a neighbor fishing - Tom will pay him. But Tom is fat and eats all the time. So is this a blessing because he will make some money to try to help save the cabin or is it another problem for Kyle?

This is a story about growing up and learning about the people around you, including your own family.

It's a well-paced story that will keep children's attention, I recommend it.

I really enjoyed this one! Sally is an author that I was familiar with, through her children's book, No Mush Today, which I have read and reviewed. When I saw that she was releasing a middle grade book, I wanted to read it.

This is a great book for middle graders and even young teens. One thing I liked is that it had a strong male main character. Kyle knows what he wants and he will do whatever it takes to get it. Kids today could learn a lot from Kyle. He goes through his parents' separation with the same feelings that many kids have. He feels he has already lost his father, and now he is about to lose one of the other constants in his life, that he loves dearly; the cottage at the lake. But, through the story, he learns a much greater lesson. He makes a new friend that he never would have thought about and learns to forgive and go on even though life isn't happening the way he wants it to. There are just so many lessons in this book, for young kids to learn from!

Sally Derby does a great job not only telling Kyle's story, but delivering a middle grade novel that boys and girls alike will enjoy! The male point of view is not prevalent in a lot of stories today, so it was refreshing to read. Positive values and lessons in a realistic fiction story, make this a must read for tweens and an excellent addition to a school library.

The lake cabin in Michigan has always been where Kyle's family comes together, and thirteen-year-old Kyle considers summer there even more important now that his grandmother has died and his father has left. This summer brings some new directions as Kyle becomes the fishing companion of a neighbor, Mr. Butler, and begins to understand his little brother's need for attention and inclusion, but a pall is cast over the vacation when he realizes that his mother plans to sell this place that more than anywhere provides Kyle with his sense of home. Debut novelist Derby writes a quiet, solid, and benevolently old-fashioned story, skillfully balancing the explicit demands and strains of the situation with some implicit working through issues by narrator Kyle. She wisely avoids a too-easy conclusion that allows the family to keep the lake house; instead, Kyle retains access to the kind of summers he loves while accepting the changes to his family and their plans. The rustic details of a pre-internet (the book is set in the 1970s) lakeside summer, with a lot of fishing, a fair amount of freedom, and no indoor plumbing, will appeal to outdoorsy readers and may make converts of those unacquainted with such bucolic delights. Most kids are familiar with summer's tendency to offer the possibility of change as well as diversion, and they'll sympathize with Kyle as he rises to meet his challenges.

When his family returns to their Michigan lakeside cottage for the summer of 1974, "almost" 13-year-old Kyle's usual excitement quells as he confronts the realities of change. Kyle loves the lake and its summer rituals, so returning "seems like a homecoming" even though it's different since his grandmother died and his dad moved out. After his mother unexpectedly lists the cottage with a realtor, Kyle feels like a "time bomb ready to explode," until he opts to savor his last summer at the lake. He accepts a daily job taking an elderly neighbor fishing, teaches his younger brother to fish and swim and explores the lake's mysterious island on his own. As Kyle traces his summer in the first person, he matures convincingly from a frustrated, angry kid into a thoughtful teen who accepts responsibility and wisely learns that "[m]ostly we don't know, about other people." A poignant coming-of-age story rooted in realistic family relationships and lovingly glossed with the wonders of summer on a lake.

Losing a parent is never easy, and for 13-year-old Kyle, it is quite a traumatic event when his dad walks out the door. Kyle, his mom, sisters, and little brother are packing up to spend their summer by the lake--a family tradition that Kyle is hoping will make them feel more like a family again. Kyle takes his little brother under his wing, showing him things that his dad taught him. When he wakes up one morning to see a "for sale" sign outside the cabin, he realizes that the family is about to face another loss. He directs his anger and bitterness towards his mom for allowing things to happen, and escapes to an island in order to calm down. Although Kyle's story takes place in Michigan in the 1970s, the theme is timeless. Derby writes a subtle coming-of-age novel that is engaging from start to finish. Kyle's character is so well developed that many readers will be able to understand the realistic emotions and situations taking place.

There are those particular summertime books that are set in particularly summertime places, and while you can certainly enjoy them year round, they lend themselves most strongly to this season. Sally Derby's novel Kyle's Island does have a serious tone (it is about the aftermath of a divorce and loss of a much loved family cabin on a Michigan lake), but it is so deeply immersed in fishing and boats and swimming and catching worms and camping that you will feel compelled to reach for the nearest pair of shorts and flip-flops before you have reached the second chapter. (Heck, the cover alone made me want to do that.) It's heartfelt and sweet and full of some serious thinking and kindness -- but it is mostly a homage to all those summers on all those lakes that are enjoyed by so many every year.

Kyle and his three siblings have grown up vacationing at their grandmother's lake cabin. After her death and their parent's breakup, the cabin has to be sold, and while everyone is sad, Kyle is devastated. He takes a summer job with a neighbor in the hopes that the money will help save their vacation spot. It's a longshot and he knows it, but he has big hopes. As the weeks go by he finds himself coming to terms though with how his life has changed. In some ways this is just a book about snacks and swimsuits and that first moment when your parents let you down, but it's also a book about finding a way to grow up a little and still be happy. The only thing that would have made Kyle's Island a better read for me was geography -- I wish I was on a dock dangling my feet in the water as I turned the pages -- that would have made it very sweet indeed.