She is prickly, defensive, is caustic to anyone trying to help her, and rages against everything apart from Johnnie. She has built walls up so high that she believes she is part stone. And this is exactly what makes the story so good, you don’t really like Frances most of the time. Frances takes care of her little brother, reading to him, washing his hair, taking him to museums, and, of course, teaching him to steal. The siblings live in Brixton with their mum, Cassie (a prostitute who only ever seems barely conscious), and Cassie’s abusive boyfriend Wayne. The story is split between the present and flashbacks from Frances’ life in London with her beloved younger half-brother Johnnie. Unfortunately for Frances, she didn’t pay a great deal of attention to the potentially life-saving lessons something she begins to regret as the plane crashes into the Pacific ocean… Along with the other teenagers on the plane, she was given instructions on survival skills.

In place of a custodial sentence for her crime, Frances has been offered a place on an experimental scheme where she and her fellow travellers will help an Indonesian community rebuild their village. When we meet Frances, she is surreptitiously sipping vodka from a water bottle in a tiny plane bound for a remote Indonesian island. I devoured this book in one sitting on the weekend and am still thinking about it – obvious signs that I need to talk about it! The story revolves around Frances, a troubled London teenager who has committed a crime, exactly what this crime entailed is gradually revealed to the reader throughout the book. And how faith, family and friendship can forge the right path.The Island(Oneworld) is the debut title from UK author Olivia Levez and is aimed at ages 13+. A thought-provoking and often frightening study of what happens when you mess with Nature and Nature decides to fight back.

This is a golden eagle of a book-it grabs you in its talons and won't let go. 'Wilderness Wars slow-builds menace from its nail-biting opening to its stunning apocalyptic climax. But can Em and Zac persuade the adults to believe it before it’s too late? Soon Em, and her friend Zac, realise that the setbacks, mishaps and accidents on the island point to something altogether more sinister: the wilderness all around them has declared war. When her father’s construction work takes Em’s family to the uninhabited island of Skelsay, she is excited, but also a little uneasy. And, far in the distance, a misty outline. Still in a daze, I take it all in: the wind, the leaden skies, the churning moody sea.

The Island by Olivia Levez