Calling all young naturalists, middle grade lovers and, of course, explorers… you are in for a treat!

Milton P. Greene has had the worst year of his life. His parents are getting a divorce, he became the laughing stock of the school & now all his friends are avoiding him.

The only little bit of escapism he gets is when he plays his favourite video game ‘Isle Of Wild’, where he can transform into naturalist and explorer extraordinaire - ‘Sea Hawk’ - dashing through the jungle and finding new species behind every leaf.

Milton used to be a sucker for all things nature, but since the worst year of his life, his spark for the wild has dwindled away.

Expecting to play Isle Of Wild all summer, Milton is not happy when he gets forced to spend the summer on an ‘almost deserted’ island with his Uncle Evan.

Until one day, he finds the lost field guide of Dr Paradis, containing a treasure hunt to find all the unique and mysterious creatures rumored to live on the island.

Milton and his new friends must channel their inner Sea Hawk, find the hidden creatures and prove they exist before the island gets sold off for real estate development!

A fun-filled adventure from the get go! Jess Redman has crafted a wonderfully action packed middle grade adventure, oozing naturey goodness from each and every chapter.

Fans of M.G.Leonard’s Twitcher’s series will absolutely love this! It also reminded me of a Jules Verne tale, - very Mysterious Island - perfect for the budding young naturalists in your life.

A lovely reminder that being yourself is one of the bravest things you can do.

Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Children’s Books for the DRC

My 9 year old co-reviewer and I really enjoyed this book. We loved the way Milton P. Green played Isle of Wild until his device ran out of charge and he couldn't find a power outlet. On his search he meets Rafi who wasn't terribly nice to him but his younger brother Gabe befriends him. He then tells a secret to a vine which opens up, then a girl named Fig reading in a tree this opens up an exciting world of adventure!

I can't think of many children who wouldn't enjoy reading this book about Milton P. Greene (fantastic name!) who is addicted to a video game about an adventurer so when his parents send him to a small tropical island to stay with his Uncle, he reluctantly buts what he has learnt from playing the game into practice.

Milton is a great character - he's very unique and doesn't always find fitting in or making friends easy and so a lot of the story focuses on how he manages when he meets the other children on the island. He struggles to make friends with them but when they discover Lone Island is in serious peril, they work together to save it.

The imagination of the author was just incredible - Lone Island is a totally unique place, full of undiscovered animals and plants and the adventure the children go on across the island was brilliantly written. There were also subtle but important themes about conservation and saving the planet and I thought these were done really well - they would make any reader think about what may still be lying undiscovered on our planet.

Overall a really entertaining story of survival, adventure and friendship.

Stung by some kind of social thing at school that has left him utterly friendless, and annoyed that his parents are divorcing, Milton has consoled himself, of course, with a computer game, one putting him in the place of a dashing sea-farer and adventurer called Sea Hawk. Much preferring to live in the world of the game than reality, he is faced with a summer shacking up with his uncle on an actual mystical island. And when the game proves unplayable – a lack of electricity will do that – and some of the mystique starts to reveal itself to him, Milton actually fancies letting a little of the Sea Hawk out of his sad, pubertal frame.

What happens is one of those adventures where Milton has to end up saving the island – and by extension himself. But it's done in a very suitable way for the young reader. It starts by feeling a little wacky, and perhaps too fond of a quirk, but I didn't mind that. When you realise it needs the jovial approach to counter Milton's sad times, and that we are not being allowed to know just what that social thing I mentioned is for a reason, you can accept it. And I liked the way the book/island opened up one fact, one surprise, one extra bit of magic at a time, in a way that felt just like a computer game's map being expanded every time you enter and unlock a new room.

Things could have been briefer here, and a touch more impactful, but I liked this, and more than I at first feared. Odd characters remain likeable, the vim of the piece remains to give humour and not just silliness, and the final benefit of the book is the fact it shows the game to be both a near-pointless distraction and cover for Milton's problems and also a source of courage for when he has to do what he does. Everything outside the world of a computer game has that dichotomy, that yin/yang – except for the fact this is ultimately a pretty affecting success. A sun-dappled four stars.

What a delight! I read this in one sitting and found myself chuckling out loud as I raced through it. I love the idea of Milton experiencing life as Sea Hawk, fearless explorer and video game character, in real life as it is so far removed from his normal day-to-day life. He embarks on the adventure of a lifetime with an unlikely group of fellow island dwellers who learn a lot about themselves and the process of developing meaningful friendships along the way.
I loved the collection of 'interesting' fauna and fauna that lurk on Lone island and know that the details of these will captivate my children into wanting to know more about them. I can't wait to share this with them as a class story time book.
I do hope there will be future adventures for Milton.

Milton P. Greene is having a rotten year so far - he's no longer on talking terms with his best friend Dev, an unfortunate incident at school has led to him being bullied (and nicknamed "Bird Brain"), and his parents appear to be heading straight for a divorce.

Milton's only escape from this harsh reality is daydreaming about his alternate existence - albeit in his imagination - as Sea Hawk, adventurous naturalist extraordinaire, and hero of the video game Isle of Wild, to which Milton is addicted.

If things weren't bad enough, Milton's parents take an executive decision, sending him to spend summer with his Uncle Evan on Lone Island. There he meets Fig, a girl who is dealing with a loss of her own, as well as brothers Rafi and Gabe, not all of whom are entirely welcoming - even after Milton, determined not to be seen as a loser in this new location, decides to introduce himself as Sea Hawk!

When Lone Island comes under threat, the kids find common cause, but will their efforts be enough to save it from those who do not care at all about its unique habitat?

This middle grade book is a wonderful read and lives up to the title - delivering exotic flora and fauna, as well as the adventure of a lifetime. Along the way Milton and his companions learn hard lessons about life, friendship, coping strategies, happiness and nature conservation.

Any serious attempt to save Lone Island requires identifying new animal and plant species in order to declare it protected for research purposes. In this regard, the writer comes up with some delightfully whimsical specimens, including the Earthworm Pachyderm, featured in the field guide provided at the end of the book.

Despite some of the serious messages the book contains, it is so much fun to see how Milton's story transforms the Terribly, Horribly, Heinously, Rotten Year he's been having into something altogether different. Highly recommended for those who enjoy middle grade books!

This was just such a great start to our Easter reading. The author is not someone who I have come across before but the children all equally enjoyed this story. They could identify with the main character and cheered him on though out the adventure. We really enjoyed this book.