Book Review: Oliver and the Seawigs

Book: Oliver and the Seawigs by Philip Reeve with illustrations by Sarah McIntyre

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

Oliver grew up in a family of explorers - but his biggest adventure is about to begin!

Along with his new friends, a grumpy old albatross, a short-sighted mermaid and a friendly island called Cliff, Oliver goes off in search of his missing parents. But before he can put his rescue plan into action there's the evil Stacey de Lacey and an army of greasy, green sea monkeys to contend with . . .


Rating: 5 stars

Review:

Kids are going to love this book, for both the story and the whimsical artwork. I like this story it was very creative and adorable.

In this story, Oliver Crisp and his parents are heading back home from another one of their exploring trips. As they approached their long abandon home, they are surprised to see a group of islands clustered nearby. That shouldn't be surprising except that those islands where not there before. And before his parent could unpack their things from their vehicle, they were about to embark on a trip to study the islands. While they were going off, Oliver took the time to unpack his things in his room and just relish the time to actually be home. But sometime later he started to realize that he hadn't heard from or seen his parent and grew worried.

That's when he noticed that all the islands were gone except for one small one and floating out near the coast was the boat that his parents had used. Gathering up his supplies, Oliver took the boat to go out to explore the little island to see if there were any clues to where his parents might be. But the only thing he found was a grumpy and talkative Albatross named Mr. Culpeper.

Next thing Oliver realized is the island had started moving and as it floated along something else strange happened. A mermaid ran into the island, well in her defense she does have really bad eyesight. The mermaid named Iris was another addition to the group and she also let Oliver know that the moving island wasn't really an island. The island turned out to be a sort of rock giant and the top of it's head was the "island" that everyone saw. The island (named Cliff by Oliver) was heading to a special event that all the roaming isle go to and most likely that's where his parents will be found.

But there were more adventures than that happening in this story. Including Oliver and his new friends trying to help Cliff and save Oliver's parents from an evil duo that includes a mean island.

This really was a delightful story and the artwork was just perfect. I think the story will engage not just kids but adults as well.

I really enjoyed this.