The Vanishing Island

June 29, 2015
Twelve-year-old Bren Owen has always wanted to travel the world seeking adventure, but his father has kept him at home in Map, “the dirtiest, noisiest, smelliest city in all of Britannia.” The year is 1599, and Holland is the great sea power in this first book in the Chronicles of the Black Tulip series, set in an alternate past. Holland has colonies throughout Southeast Asia, and when a ship of the Dutch Bicycle & Tulip Company stops in Map, Bren would do anything to get on board. A mysterious object Bren receives from a dying sailor gives him the chance he has been waiting for, but it also causes more adventure than he is entirely comfortable with. Wolverton’s (Neversink) story speeds along suspensefully through a history intriguingly different from our own. The privations and hazards of sea travel are thoroughly depicted (as is the unpleasant reality of Bren’s work in a vomitorium), and the occasional moment of magic is gracefully understated. The major beats of the plot are fairly standard and the characterizations basic, but Bren’s story still entertains. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jennifer Rofé, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.