The Island by Gary Paulsen

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The Island by Gary Paulsen

The book I read was The Island by Gary Paulsen. It is about a 15 year

old boy named Wil Neuton who moves with his family to northern Wisconsin.

There he finds an island on Sucker Lake where he stays to learn about

himself.

Wil likes riding his bike early in the morning. He also likes watching

nature. He is very tall for his age-6 feet 2-but well-built and strong. He

is honest,cares about others and prefers to talk things through than

resort to violence.

The title is good because the book is very much about the island and

about Wil finding himself on this island. The island also becomes a very

prominent point in Wil's life. By comparison and observation, he learns

that all things are connected.

An interesting minor character is Emil Aucht. On the morning of his

first day in Pinewood Wil wakes up to find Emil staring at him through the

window. Emil is an old man with one tooth, no hair and ears that stick out.

He chews tobacco and spits brown gunk all over the place. He first appears

in the story to request that Wil help him get his car out of the mud. Then

Emil reappears to fix the plumbing,wrecking Wil's parents' nerves in the

process.

The atmosphere in the story is that of a small hick town in northern

Wisconsin:open,friendly,relaxed and very laid-back. It strikes me as being

very much like "cottage country" in northern

Ontario:lakes,forest,fishing,small town life. The time is the late 1980's.

The novel ends with Wil seeing that his father is watching him from

shore. Wil rows over and finds that his father is tired and sad,his eyes

rimmed with red from crying. Wil invites his father over to the island and

realizes that this saga will only end when Wil finds an island big enough

for his whole family so they can learn what he has learned.

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