Additional information
by Frieda Wishinsky (Author), Willow Dawson (Illustrator)
Inspired by the story of actual passengers on the ill-fated Lusitania, this is a novel of great adventure and suspense, including graphic novel-style illustrations.
Avis Dolphin doesn't want to leave New York and sail to England on the Lusitania. War is raging in Europe, and the Germans threaten to sink the ship. Avis is lonely and afraid until she meets a kindly professor whose stories of a magical island help her face an uncertain future.
When the Lusitania is attacked, Avis must draw on all her newfound strength to cope with the confusion, terror and despair. How can she survive the sudden devastation of the ship? Will the people she cares about, especially the professor, live through the horror and danger?
The immediacy of Frieda Wishinsky's voice will engage readers in this thrilling story based on real events. They will identify with Avis and Professor Holbourn as they grapple with a stubborn captain, encounter German stowaways and contend with the feud between Avis's two cabin mates. In an atmosphere of growing anxiety, readers will be glued to the dramatic events as they unfold and the surprising fate of the people they have come to know.
Willow Dawson's art depicts the stories the professor tells Avis in enchanting graphic-novel form. They provide a riveting magical element to the story, creating a story-within-a-story.
Like Avis, readers will fall in love with Foula and will dream of the island long after they have reached the last page of this exciting story.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7
Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
Author Biography
Frieda Wishinsky is the award-winning author of over 60 books. She writes in a variety of genres: picture books, novels and non-fiction. Her books have been translated into many languages and her picture book Please, Louise! won the 2008 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. Frieda's newest books are Explorers Who Made It... or died trying and A History of Just About Everything, written with Elizabeth MacLeod. Frieda loves sharing the writing process with students at all levels.
Award winning author and illustrator Willow Dawson's books include Ghost Limb, Hyena in Petticoats, The Big Green Book of the Big Blue Sea with Helaine Becker, Lila and Ecco's Do-It-Yourself Comics Club, No Girls Allowed with Susan Hughes, and the upcoming The Wolf-Birds. Her books have been supported by the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. Willow Dawson also teaches Creating Comics and Graphic Novels at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies. She lives in Toronto. willowdawson.com
