Nim’s Island
A girl. An iguana. An island. And e-mail.
Meet Nim – a modern-day Robinson Crusoe!
She can chop down bananas with a machete, climb tall palm trees, and start a fire with a piece of glass.
So she’s not afraid when her scientist dad sails off to study plankton for three days, leaving her alone on their island. Besides, it’s not as if no one’s looking after her – she’s got a sea lion to mother her and an iguana for comic relief. She also has an interesting new e-mail pal.
But when her father’s cell phone calls stop coming and disaster seems near, Nim has to be stronger and braver than she’s ever been before.
And she’ll need all her friends to help her.
Author
Wendy Orr
Pages
126
AR Level
5.8
Book Review
Nim lives with her scientist father, Jack, on a secret island. They have all they need including cell phones and a computer to keep in touch with the outside of the world. Jack occasionally publishes science articles and answers science questions via email.
When Jack goes off to collect plankton for a few days, Nim stays home with her best friends, Selkie the sea lion and Fred the iguana. Adventures ensure. Nim survives an erupting volcano, chases off a tourist ship that is scouting out her island, and gets a best-selling author, Alex Rover, for a pen pal.
What We Liked
There is plenty of adventures in this book. We liked her animal friends and wish we could join the crew on this island. We would love to live in the Rusoe tree house. My kids now think that they should also be allowed to have a machete (not happening). Our favorite scene was Nim protecting her island from cruise scouts – she is very innovative and the pranks are “epic”.
What We Disliked
My youngest did not like the storm that keeps Jack from getting back to Nim. The format of the emails between Nim and Alex Rover are awkward to read aloud – they are much easier to read in print.
Audiobook
We did not listen to the audiobook.
Movie Tie-In
The 2008 movie version of Nim’s Island is rated PG. It is not as good as the book (I seem to say this a lot). There are quite a lot of changes to the story that were fun to watch, but not faithful to the book. Some parts of the movie were very funny – my youngest was howling when iguanas were being launched onto a beach full of tourists. The coconut raft experiment, which we were looking for in the movie, was also missing.
The Verdict
This is a fun easy read appropriate for kids of all ages. It is a read aloud for Elementary, but your Middle Grader will be able to read by themselves.
There are 2 other books after this one, Nim at Sea and Rescue on Nim’s Island. There is also another film, Return to Nim’s Island, that sounds like it may match the 3rd book. We are not reading Nim at Sea as our next book, but may come back to it in the future.
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