The Notted Island

Umbertiska Lupp (Tisky, for short) lives on Last Island, a place that has yet to experience colour, having been stuck in between night and day for as long as anyone can remember. When a stranger comes to town with a newfangled automatic night, it’s up to Tisky to talk to the island’s notte – the person in charge of drawing the fabric of night across the sky at night and rolling it back up again at dawn – to try to entice colour to make its way to the people of Last Island.

If that sounds sweet and strange, it is. Child’s poetic language gives the text a dreamlike quality, and her illustrations float through the book like clouds across a starry sky, turning from black-and-white to colour as the adventure progresses. Young readers will appreciate the maps, handwritten letters, and newspaper clippings that lend Last Island its authenticity as they follow Tisky on her ethereal journey, meeting river sprites and hitchhiking shadows along the way. And while the vocabulary (including many made-up monikers) isn’t for the faint of heart, an advanced young reader or a young-at-heart teen or adult will surely be enchanted by this imaginative story.