Island of the Aunts

Island of the Aunts

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3.92 of 5 stars 3.92  ·  rating details  ·  3,819 ratings  ·  220 reviews
When the kindly old aunts decide that they need help caring for creatures who live on their hidden island, they know that adults can't be trusted. What they need are a few special children who can keep a secret-a secret as big as a magical island. And what better way to get children who can keep really big secrets, than to kidnap them! (After all, some children just plain...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published September 10th 2001 by Puffin (first published 1999)
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Ann
Jul 17, 2010 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Ann by: Kathryn
I'm still not entirely sure what I thought of this book... part of me really liked it, and part of me didn't. I suppose if half stars were allowed, I’d award this 3 and a half, but since there aren’t, I’ll err on the plus side.

First of all, I very much enjoyed Ibboston's style of writing. She definitely has a flare for words and a wonderful way with unique descriptions. She's also able to give one a feeling of a character in just a few phrases, something it seems few authors are able to do. I th...more
Blessing
Mar 03, 2009 Blessing rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Easy read and fun to imagine it being real today.
Recommended to Blessing by: I got it from my mom's house
I got this book at mom's house when she was letting us pick 5 books out.
This is a real story - meaning not fantasy, but it actually has some things that wouldn't be classified as "real". It has mermaids that have been in an oil spill and selkie seals that when you look in their eyes you can see a human spirit. There is also the Kraken....you have to read the book to find out why this Kraken is so beautifully created by the author.
Taking place from England, there are 3 aunts (they have a nephew...more
Namratha Kumar
Island Of The Aunts is Eva Ibbotson's magical, sea-side fantasy with an environmental message.



Three oddball aunts; Etta, Coral and Myrtle live on a secret island.....caring for a wide variety of animals ranging from ordinary chickens to mystical creatures like selkies, boobries and even a family of abandoned, oil-slick mermaids. But managing the ever-increasing menagerie is a full-time job and the aunts aren’t getting any younger.


So the best option seems to be to kidnap some children and bring...more
Abby Johnson
Sisters Etta, Cora, and Myrtle are getting older and they know that they're going to need some help taking care of the creatures that reside on their island. What they need are a couple of strong, open-minded children. Children nobody seems to want. Children who will grow up on the island and learn to love and care for the creatures that come there for help. There doesn't seem to be any other way to get such children except to kidnap them. So that's what the sisters decide to do.

When Minette and...more
Von Fritz
Island of the Aunts is the second book I read from Eva Ibbotson. Which makes me pity myself for discovering the author this late. The book didn’t fail my expectations, for Ibbotson makes bizarre things out of common, of creating wonderful and unforgettable characters without being far-fetched from reality.

The book tells the story of the three aging sisters who live in a remote island somewhere in Greenland. Along with their father who decided to stay in the island and started everything, the thr...more
Brittany Hale
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Matilda Peck
"Island of the Aunts" is a fabulous story of an island filled with the most extraordinary creatures. Selkies, mermaids, stoorworms, and broobies are just the beginning. Two children are kidnapped and taken to the island, but they soon love the island as much as the aunts do. They help to defend the island against the outside world and they don't want to leave their new special friends. Eva Ibbotson (the author) has created a children's paradise as she describes the island: "The children ran out...more
Marfita
I see a lot of objections in the reviews of this book to the "kidnapping" device of the story. Adults are having a big problem with the concept of kidnapping - but not the fantasy. I think we often stint on giving credit to children's intelligence. You only have to look at the cover of this book (with the giant eye of the Kraken and the mermaid) to see this is a book of fantasy. The first sentence tells you what you already know, that kidnapping children is not a good idea. Nor, I might add, is...more
Mike (the Paladin)
Once again I find myself in a "startlingly small" minority about a book. I find myself wondering if it's something generational here? Now, my children are all grown, but given the opportunity, I'd probably not have read this one to them... (but to quote on of the Aunts in the book "you know how men are." Really? What would be the reaction if I said "you know how women are"? That's a phrase we don't use anymore because it's deemed to be demeaning. Apparently "men" can't be demeaned. To be fair, t...more
Jackie
So far this is the 3rd story I’ve read by Eva Ibbotson, but unfortunately it’s my least favorite. It starts charmingly enough with the Aunts explaining that kidnapping is bad, but in this case it needs to be done. They need someone who will continue on with their legacy of caring for the magical and regular creatures that come seeking help to their far off island. Since neither of the three has children kidnapping is the only way. I know some reviewers had a problem with the kidnapping part, but...more
Julie
I read this book with my 8-year old daughter, and we both enjoyed it thoroughly! On an isolated island off the coast of England, three "aunts" (aka, old women) take care of injured and unusual creatures, away from the prying eyes of the world. It occurs to them that they are aging, and need to find youngsters who can take over the work after they die. These typically kind, if a bit kooky, ladies head to London and commence their kidnapping adventure. Once the children are snatched, and wake up o...more
Amalie
"Aunts" Etta, Coral and Mytle live in a secret island with Captain Harper who loves to tell stories again and again and again.... For the sake of the island and for those who live there, the three aunts must kidnap children: a boy and a girl. Minette and Fabio become the "chosen" children and, yes, also Lambert gets kidnapped by a mistake.

In the island they meet the strangest creatures one can never imagine. Queenie and Oona, the twin mermaids; Herbert the Silkie (Silkies are seals but they are...more
Sheila Beaumont
Etta, Coral and Myrtle are three eccentric aunts who dwell on an island where they take care of the creatures who live there, including some very unusual ones: selkies, a boobrie (a sort of cousin of the dodo), mermaids, and a stoorworm (an Icelandic wingless dragon).

Since the aunts are getting old, they need some younger people to help out and take over when they're gone, so they decide to kidnap, or "choose," three children who are unappreciated by their families.

As usual with Eva Ibbotson's b...more
Treasa
I am wavering between 3 and 4 stars. I really like Eva Ibbotson's writing, so I would like to give it 4 stars. But I just wasn't that excited about the book. I think the thing that bothered me most was that the aunts kidnapped children. Sure, I know why they did it. But I still didn't like it. And I didn't feel particularly tied to any of the characters, which is disappointing. The aunts were the best-developed characters, but they were also kidnappers, so I couldn't get too emotionally attached...more
Jessica
Island of the Aunts came in a boxed set with Which Witch, which I had read as a child and wanted to re-read. While I thoroughly enjoyed Which Witch?, it's a rather predictable story geared toward relatively young readers. Island of the Aunts features a higher reading level and a more complicated plot. In it, three aging women who care for an island of magical creatures realize that they have to find and train someone to care for the island after they die. Unable to come up with a better plan, th...more
Kasha
This was a very different and imaginative book. I must say I enjoyed the writer's style. She incorporated quite a bit of humor into the story, and I was surprised how funny some situations turned out to be. The only part I didn't care for was that a ship captain in search of his kidnapped son comes to an island where everyone is nude (a nudist colony). It was written that way for humor, and it is kind of funny, but I would be embarrassed reading that part aloud to my son. I think maybe someone a...more
Laura Ramon Galva
Well I'm in Chapter 2 right now. Island of the Aunts is a funny, interesting, curious, intriging, wonderful, and creative.This book makes you turn the page to find what is going to happen next. There's 3 aunts in this book that think that kiddnaping is good and allows lonely kids that aren't likeable by their parents come to them and live at this magical and faraway island that nobody knows about.The aunts are Aunt Etta, Aunt Coral and Aunt Mirtle.They want have this kids in their island because...more
Haley
Aunt Etta, Aunt Coral and Aunt Myrtle are getting old and can no longer keep up with all of the creatures of they're island like they used to - after all, mermaids, selkies, and boobries take a lot of work. However, they know that they cannot trust other adults to take care of the island the way they do. So they decide that they need some children. There is only one problem - they don't have any. Eventually the aunts decide that the only way to get some kids is kidnapping. After all, some child...more
Beth Bonini
Unlike some of Ibbotson's children's books, this one is not just for fun. There is an important message about how we treat the oceans underneath the imaginative plot and unusual characters. I couldn't see how Ibbotson was going to make everything come out right in this one, especially since the plot hinges on the kidnapping of several children, but she does.

One of my daughter's favourites when she was 10-12. I think that she has reread it numerous times.
She is passionate about NOT eating anythin...more
Suna
Jan 24, 2011 Suna rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone in need of a comfort read
Shelves: eva-ibbotson
Wonderful. In the most literal sense of the word.

Three children get kidnapped out of their ordinary lives to help three aging aunts, who run a forgotten island for wounded sea creatures.
These creatures vary from oil-slicked gulls to oil-slicked mermaids, and two of the children very quickly come to realize that their presumed kidnapping has been the best thing that's ever happened to them.
The third kid is a spoilt, screeching nightmare who ends up betraying the island and the legendary sea creat...more
Josie
Minette and Fabio had a pretty boring life till they were kidnapped by the Aunts. Then, not only did they get to take care of seals, pelicans, squid, and more, they also took care of mermaids, broobries, silkies, and even the most important animal in the ocean: the kraken. Life going swell except for one thing: Aunt Myrtle made a mistake: instead of a kid willing to help, she chose a kid of complete worthlessness and through even more mistakes, he called his dad, told him of the animals, and cre...more
Kathryn
Jul 08, 2010 Kathryn rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fantasy fans, those seeking books on protecting the environment or on broken homes
Having read and loved Ibbotson's The Great Ghost Rescue, I had high hopes for my journey to the Island of the Aunts. And I must now consider myself an Ibbotson fan! I love her style. For me, it is the closet thing to JK Rowling's that I've found in terms of characterization and humor and blending magic with "the real world" but Ibbotson also has her own flare and it just makes me smile to read her work.

That said, I must say I was a little disappointed with "Island of the Aunts" Maybe my expectat...more
Kay
Sep 23, 2012 Kay rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: re-read
2009 review (see 2012 review following):
Children's lit, but total delight to read. Very well written, detail exquisite--never gets "purple" but paints a clear picture of a fabled island. I still have a little problem with the "kidnapping" part, even though for a good cause and bettered the children's lives when they were returned to their families, but it keeps bothering me a bit.

The four aunts aren't individually memorable to me, except I do know Aunt Myrtle is the one who plays her cello to t...more
Rose
A delightful, but quirky story of three aunts who take care of an island with all sorts of magical creatures. I read this story out loud to a group of children. It took a little while for them to get into the story, but by the end, they were loving it! Some of the vocabularly and expressions were a little "British" for the kids, and there were even some words that I had to skip or substitude: mainly "h---". Overall, though, I thought the story was very well written, funny, and original!
Christine
I read this on vacation after Taylor had finished it and I really enjoyed it. A fun novel of an island of spinster aunts that take care of some fantastic creatures and are desperate to find someone to continue their legacy. I loved the way the author wrote the book, with unexpected things happening (and being said) throughout the story. It reminded me of the Ronald Dahl books I loved growing up. Very fun, and very funny. I would reccommend it for probably 4th or 5th grade on up.
Shannon Karoly
Island of the Aunts was a good book. I think it was interesting how the animals on the island were described as nice, sweet, caring creatures. I thought the beginning of this book was a little slow. The beginning of this book did not have much detail. This book was confusing at parts. I liked how all of aunts had good intentions throughout the book. The end of this book was not very surprising and not very exciting. Overall, I thought this was an okay book.

Ilana Waters
I admit to having a bit of a problem with the way the children were drugged and kidnapped in the beginning of the story. And they did seem to be essentially enslaved by the aunts, when I feel they deserved a surfeit of love and a real childhood of their own. However, the overall message of environmental responsibility--along Ibbotson's usual humor and tenderness--makes Island of the Aunts a classic of children's literature.
Dian
ada sebuah pulau dimana penuh dengan hewan-hewan aneh, kek monster getu. para penjaganya adalah empat kakak beradik yang semuanya perempuan. mereka sebenernya udah kewalahan ngurusin hewan-hewan aneh itu, sampai akhirnya mereka musti cari jalan dengan menculik anak-anak kecil buat bantuin mereka di pulau itu. kebayang hebohnya waktu mereka pura-pura jadi nanny trus nyulik anak-anak kecil buat dibawa ke pulau. di pulau pun anak-anak yg tadinya ga betah jadi kerasan. nah, ada cerita tentang legend...more
Leslie
This was a hard book for me to rate. I think I would do 3 1/2 stars if I could. As it is, I thought the story was creative and fun and if I was 12, I would probably have given it 5 stars. So for a child reader, this would still be a great book. My 32 year old self was a little disappointed at the flatness of the characters. They are very interesting characters and it took me a long time to figure out what was lacking in the book, but I think it was some depth to the characters and also a little...more
Megan Gil
I loved this book. It's adventurous and one of those books every kid wishes would come to life. The kids in the book get kidnapped and have to learn about the island and how to take care of the magical creatures because the aunts that live there are too old to do it themselves. I read this in middle school (when I actually had time to read my own books) and couldn't put it down.
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Eva Ibbotson (born Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner, 1925, Vienna, Austria) was a British novelist specializing in romance and children's fantasy. Eva Ibbotson was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1925. When Hitler came into power, Ibbotson's family moved to England. She attended Bedford College, graduating in 1945; Cambridge University from 1946-47; and the University of Durham, from which she graduat...more
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“one of the sisters started shaving her legs and marrying tax inspectors, so she was no good.” 16 people liked it
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