Ethan and Matt are staying at a lakeside cabin over a summer weekend for what they think is just an ordinary vacation, until they hear about the legend of a lost diamond called the Heart of the Island.
When they meet a local girl named Karen, she helps them discover a treasure map that shows a diamond buried deep within the island. The two friends can’t resist a great adventure, but they must overcome their fears, and face spooky bat-filled caves, as they take on the quest to find the treasure.
Genre: Middle Grade/Young Adult, Fiction
Age appropriate: 9+
Number of Pages: 166
Date of Publication: 08/05/2020
Author/Illustrator/Publisher:
David Konrad is the author of this book. He writes stories full of adventures and his aim is for younger children to enjoy reading while using their imagination.
The cover and map illustration were created by Dion MBD and the book was designed by Sarah Darby and it was published by Miran Kocmur.
Rating: 4.5/5
Review:
This is a book for middle grade children and for anyone who enjoy an entertaining read, written with simple vocabulary.
The book starts by telling us the legend of a lost diamond and about the island. Everyone wonders what happened to it.
Ethan and Matt are two friends who went to spend the weekend with their parents and where they meet Karen the granddaughter of the owner of the cabin where they are staying. Karen belongs to the Davenport Family who once owned the diamond. She explains to Ethan and Matt the legend and encourage them to help her find the diamond. There is just a problem and it is that Karen’s cousins are not very welcoming to them and just want to taunt and make fun of them. Ethan, Matt and Karen set to go to the island to look for the diamond where they will have explore caves and be ready for anything that comes their way.
‘Heart of the Island’ is full of adventures, mystery and twists. I was pleasantly surprised to find such a skilfully written, exciting story with an unexpected ending in a children’s book and more so from a self-published debut novelist. The characters are well developed and the twist that the story takes took me by surprise. Each of the characters have their own personality which fit perfectly into the story.
My boys are always talking about going on an adventure so this book has everything that they are looking for like finding treasure, friendship and also the enemies. I found myself enjoying reading this book although sometimes I wondered what the hotel security people mentioned in the book were doing or where any of the adults were but this didn’t stop me from enjoying the story.
One of the details in books that I always look for is the type setting and space between lines as middle graders are just getting confident in reading this type of books and I was happy to see that the font and size were perfect and that the language used was nice and simple.
I will recommend this book to young readers from middle grade that enjoy mysteries and adventures. ‘Heart of the Island’ is the first book in the Project Adventure series.
Availability: This book is available on Amazon as paperback and e-Book.
Thank you so much David Konrad for providing me with a copy of the book.
Shelf Life 
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