SECRETS OF TAMARIND

After rescuing their marine-biologist parents from a mysterious island in The Lost Island of Tamarind (2008), feisty siblings Maya, Simon and Penny encounter more amazing adventures as they return to prevent Tamarind’s destruction in this hair-raising sequel.

Since leaving Tamarind four years ago, Maya, Simon and Penny (16, 13 and 5, respectively) have lived quietly in Bermuda with their preoccupied parents, who worry about the Red Coral Project, a phony scientific study intent on ravaging Tamarind to extract the precious mineral ophalla. When Helix, their orphan pal from Tamarind, asks them to sail the Pamela Jane back to the island, Simon, Maya and Penny can’t refuse. Shocked to discover the Red Coral systematically destroying the island, they embark on an arduous quest. Eventually Simon assumes the hero’s role, following obscure clues hidden in three ophallagraphs, leading relentlessly to the Neglected Provinces, the Little Blue Door, the Mumbagua Falls, the Moraine of Lost Loved Ones and, ultimately, to Faustina’s Gate. Here, with Tamarind’s fate in his hands, Simon comes of age, “knowing his purpose is important and clear.” Replete with ecological warnings applicable to real as well as fantasy worlds and glossed with lush descriptions of imaginary flora and fauna, the rapid-fire plot bristles with danger.

Like Simon, Maya and Penny, readers will find it hard to leave the magical world of Tamarind.