Island at the End of Everything

Kiran Millwood Hargrave's Island at the End of Everything is a beautiful, heart-tugging story for 10 year olds about a girl who could be taken away from her mother.

What happens

Amihan is twelve. She was born on Culion, an island in the Philippines where people with leprosy are sent to live. Her nanay has it. Ami doesn't.

The island is gorgeous, with clear blue sea, turtles on the beaches and forest full of birds. Ami likes to lie very still at the bottom of the garden, hoping to spot a butterfly.

Then a government man called Mr Zamora arrives. He's tall and thin like a locust, and he's come to split the island in two. Healthy children are to be taken to an orphanage on another island. Every one of them.

Ami has been tested and she's clean. Which, for once, is the worst thing she could possibly be.

Ami tells the story herself, and her voice is lovely to read. She's thoughtful and a bit serious (a nun once told her she has a very serious face). She notices small things, like the purple berries she races down a slope, or the way her mum's hand twitches when she remembers the butterfly garden they planted.

The love between Ami and her nanay is the heart of it. Her mum is prickly and brave. She won't pray, she can't stand one of the nuns, and when it really matters she unwraps her face in front of the whole church and stands up to Mr Zamora.

It's worth knowing that the illness is described honestly. Her mum's nose has nearly gone and her fingers are swollen, and people on the island have sores and lumps. It's never gory, but it is sad. So is the thought of a child being sent away from her mum, and that hangs over everything from the start.

A sensitive reader might want to share it with a grown-up. For a child who can cope with a lump in their throat, it's an unforgettable read. And Mr Zamora, with his room full of pinned butterflies, is a villain they'll love to hate.

What to read next

If they want more of her writing, The Way Past Winter is set in a forest that has been frozen for five years, where Mila, her sisters and her brother are keeping the family going since their papa left.