Ages: 9-12

Tree Castle Island
by Jean Craighead George.

Fourteen-year-old Jack loves staying with Uncle Hamp, his dad’s brother, whenever his parents go away. Hamp lives on the St. Mary’s River in Georgia, just downriver from the Okefenokee Swamp and down the road from his sister Mattie Lou. Jack’s mom doesn’t like the swamp or Hamp’s house and doesn’t like Jack spending time there, and Jack’s dad doesn’t want Jack to be an outdoorsman, he wants him to be an engineer. All Jack wants, though, is to be allowed to explore and learn about the plants and animals of the swamp, and since Hamp thinks that’s fine, Hamp’s house is his favorite place in the whole world.  

This time, with his parents in Europe, Jack is left alone at Hamp’s to fend for himself while Hamp goes off for a week to help a neighbor. Jack therefore decides to take L’tle Possum, the canoe he’s built all by himself,  into the rivers of the swamp to fool around and maybe search for the legendary Paradise Island. He’ll stay out a few days camping, he thinks to himself, and then he’ll go back.

 As he searches, he begins to feel as though someone - or something - is watching him. Following him. And then L’tle Possum is wrecked in a storm and what began as a fun adventure turns deadly serious. As Jack’s survival skills keep him alive, he discovers who’s been following him: It’s a boy named Jake, and he looks like Jack. Exactly like him. And they’re both about to find out why.

-Betty Winslow
 

Betty Winslow is a writer and school librarian from Bowling Green, Ohio.   Her writing has appeared in many places, among them FamilyFun, Christian Library Journal, Guideposts, Writer's Digest, and six anthologies (so far).