Rly good

An endearing tale with wonderfully drawn characters. Parts of this were very predictable and the plot isn’t revolutionary but it’s very easy to root for these sisters. I suspect I would have benefited from reading the first book for maximum emotional engagement but this book works fine as a standalone since Horvath gives enough backstory to clue new readers in.

Thanks to Penguin Random House who kindly sent me a copy of the book for review. ( )

I have been a fan of Polly Horvath since I was a child and read Everything on a Waffle. I enjoyed the first Pine Island book and was very grateful to receive "Pine Island Visitors" as a free giveaway. I read this book quickly as the writing flows very well. I find that Polly's books still interest me as an adult just as much as when I was a child. I love the characters although I enjoyed the first book's plot more interesting than this one. I hope there will be more stories about the children on Pine Island.

*I received a copy of this book through the Goodreads Giveaways program in exchange for an honest review*

You know when you read something so perfectly relevant it feels like the universe must have planted it in your path? That was this book for me.

More than a fun, relatable and easy-to-read middle-grade novel, Pine Island Visitors is a story about four resilient sisters and their adoptive guardian (read: grumpy old man) who open their home to fellow missionaries/church-goers and have a wild ride as hosts. This book does have some holiday elements so I'm thrilled to have read it in mid-December, however the themes, messages, and values are timeless.

This book is a sequel but it reads as a stand-alone (I hadn't read the first book but feel I still got to know all the characters quite well). No real "complaints" so the 4-star rating is simply this reader's opinion. But love the Can-Con (Canadian content) and character growth.

Like so many other middle-grade reads I really believe this book is for anyone in the double-digits - we forget how wise we are by 10 years old!!! ( )

Thank you so much to LibraryThing and Tundra Books for this book in exchange for my honest review. This is the second book in the series and continues to follow the four sisters as they get used to life on the island. I really enjoyed the first book but I didn't enjoy this one as much. This book has very heavy themes of bullying and not by just one person, there were multiple examples of people being bullied. At one point one of the sisters just seems to give up and really has no interest in anything anymore. It was incredibly sad. One of the most frustrating things was that one of the bullies was an adult and the girls felt very helpless to do anything about it. I was so frustrated by this particular character Jo and how awful she was to the girls that I stayed up late reading just so I could finish the book in the hopes that it would have a happy ending. I wouldn't say that I enjoyed reading it though, I just wanted to finish it. I did think the author portrayed the bullying in a very real way though. Especially when talking about the person who's being bullied and when the sisters are talking about how angry they get and how they don't like who they're becoming I thought the author really got it. I think we can all relate to those feelings at one time or another. At one point one of the characters told the girls "...it was easier to be uber-polite with people you didn't particularly want to have anything to do with than it was to be rude. Rudeness binds you. Politeness creates distance." I never really thought about this but it's very true. If you're rude to someone you're actually engaging with them and developing a relationship, even if it's a negative one. This is maybe not the best way to go through life! Being uber-polite because you don't want to deal with people! But this did make me stop and think. There were seven instances of blasphemy and the heavy theme of bullying. The bullying is verbal and emotional it's not physical. Overall just not as enjoyable as the first one. The one character was just a bit too frustrating for me. This book was reviewed on the Literary Club Podcast Season 2 episode 33 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1984185