We Won an Island

Charlotte Lo's We Won an Island is a funny family story for 11 year olds about a girl who writes one letter and ends up with a Scottish island.

What happens

Luna Butterworth has just turned ten. She makes two birthday wishes. She'd like a pet (ideally a donkey, after meeting a grinning one called Little Cocoa) and she'd like Dad to smile again.

Dad hasn't been himself since Granny died. He's stopped going to work and spends his days asleep or watching old episodes of Countdown. Then a letter lands on the mat. The family is three months behind with the rent and they're being evicted.

So when her little brother Fabien finds a newspaper story about a billionaire giving his island away, Luna writes to him. Fabien sends along a pair of knitted dolphin slippers as a present. (They're truly awful. The billionaire thinks they're smashing.)

The phone call comes, the family goes to have a look, and the island turns out to be gorgeous and a complete wreck. There are goats up trees, bats in the kitchen, a rusty boat with a hole plugged with chewing gum and a big old house swallowed by vines.

It's such fun to read. Luna tells it, and she's hopeful to the point of madness. Big sister Margot is the grump who wants London and her plane-spotting back, right up until she finds pieces of an old aeroplane in the stables. Fabien is a knitting, goat-chasing whirlwind. There's a daft line on nearly every page.

There's a gentle sad thread too. Luna's plans are really all about making Dad better, and you feel how badly she wants it. So when the three of them find an old leaflet and decide to hold a secret festival to raise money, you just know it's going to get out of hand!

If you've got a reader who loves big noisy families and animals everywhere, this is a treat. Light and silly, with some real heart in the middle.

What to read next

For another family packing everything up and starting again somewhere wild, try Whispering Alaska by Brendan Jones. Twins Nicky and Josie cross the whole of America with their dad after losing their mum. It's a sadder, quieter book, but just as full of family.