The Island

by Gary Paulsen

Book Overview

Every morning fifteen-year-old Wil Neuton gets up, brushes his teeth, leaves the house, and rows away from shore. He's discovered the island--a place where he can go to be alone and learn to know... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0439786622
• ISBN13: 9780439786621
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.7" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Best book I ever read

The boy goes out to a small island almost directly in the center of a lake by his new home where he doesn't have any friends yet.While he is out there he draws and paints.But then a girl comes, and he becomes friends with her.Then back in civilization,people find out about him being by himself on an island,and news reporters come and everything changes. This book lets you get into all of the boy's emotions and everything he thinks.He experiences new things and learns new things about himself and life.

IN TOUCH WITH THE NATURE.

IMAGINE HAVING A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN RELAX AND GET OUT OF TROUBLE. THIS HAPPENED TO A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD BOY, WIL. HIS FATHER WORKS FOR THE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT AND THE COMPANY OFFERED A NEW JOB OUTSIDE OF THE CITY. HE ACCEPTS IT. ONE DAY WIL WAS RIDING ON HIS BICYCLE WHEN HE SAW A ISLAND THAT WAS LIKE A MAGNET TRYING TO ATTRACT HIM TO IT. HE FINALLY GOES TO THE ISLAND HE RELAXES, PAINTS, AND WRITE ABOUT NATURE THE MOVEMENTS OF THE ANIMALS AND FILLINGS.IM A GARY PAULSEN FAN BUT I THINK THAT THIS IS NOT ONE OF HIS BEST WRITTEN BOOKS. I SPECIALLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE NATURE AND THE POWERFUL AND COLORFUL, PAULSEN WRITING.

Just might be the best book I've ever read

The Island is a great story and it has more meaning to it than most books do. Wil Neuton's parents aren't getting along that great and they just moved to a new neighborhood and it might not be the last time they move. Wil befriends a girl before he takes a trip to the island and they become real close, but don't get me wrong, that's only a small part of the story. The main theme about the story is Wil finding an island a piece from his family's new house and becoming instantly attached to it. Wil likes the island because it gets him away from all the tension of his parents' fighting and the bullies. While there, he discovers himself a lot more and also many things about nature. He writes about and paints many scenes from the island. For some reason, this island is nothing like any place he's ever seen before. The birds, fish, and everything about it are so good that they're beyond describing. But the best part about it is that it is real peaceful on the island. He does have some visitors from time to time. The girl he met comes to see him and lets him know what's happening around the house and especially some information on what the town bully who likes to beat up all new visitors is saying. Yes, the bully eventually comes to take a visit and have a little fight. But most important of all, Wil goes home one day and tells his parents about the island and tells them he wants to stay there indefinitely. His parents are worried so they hire a psychologist to interview Wil on the island. All in all, The Island is in my opinion the best Gary Paulsen book I've read so far and one of the best books I've ever read period. Going through a divorce when I was 8 and now still seeing my mom suffer from my abusive stepdad, I understood why Wil would want to go to an island to get away from all the turmoil. I think everybody wishes they could just be alone and away from all the troubles in their life from time to time. After reading The Island, you'll wish you had your own island to go stay on. The Island tells a great story all the way through. If you're a nature lover, it'll be even better. It's hard to believe that a book this great is so cheap, I recommend everyone to buy it no matter what the price is.

It is a good book and one can learn a lot from it.

Wil Neuton, the main character, goes out to this island that he has found. Many people start to think he is crazy until they listen with an open mind, and forget what society says. Others say this book is boring because it doesn't have many adventure scenes, but there are adventure scenes, just not of the normal sort. That is what makes this book so good. They are the adventures of watching something and learning what it is, not because someone told you or you read it in a book, but because you watched it and learned what it meant to you. They are adventures of the mind and that is when you truely learn the most. That is what Wil does, he watches the animals on the island, thinks about people he knows, and thinks about things he kind of ignored before. While Wil does this, he starts to learn more about himself and doesn't want to leave the island until he has figured it out, for fear he will lose some of it if he leaves. Overall, this book is a good book if you read it with an open mind and are at that stage in your life that you are trying to figure out who you are.