Katherine Child’s Debut: Unveiling ‘The Notted Island’

The Notted Island

I’ve just finished reading the most beguiling book. I’m not even sure how I would describe it but I’m going to try, yet I don’t feel I will do it complete justice. It’s certainly one you need to read yourself. Although aimed at the 9-11, middle grade age range I feel it sits very comfortably within a short read for older children and adults.

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The Notted Island Book Details

Quick Review: 🖼️Illustrated middle grade 🕰️Set in the past 🍄‍🟫Nature focused 🌃Night sky👴Intergenerational relationships 🏝️Remote setting 📜Letters/ journal 🌈Hope

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Katherine Child – Author and Illustrator

While still shaping the book over more than a decade, she drew on personal influences – from daydreaming along Cornish coastal paths to her stint photographing insects at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Her dual role as writer-illustrator means that in The Notted Island, text and image are woven together intimately: the story begins in stark black and white and gradually blossoms into colour as the narrative unfolds. I’ve always loved looking at the relationship between story and illustrations – author and illustrator. When the two are one and the same it brings an essence to the book that I don’t feel can be replicated. You get to enter a very different, crafted world.

Take a little peep at this title below. This is a proof – the actual finished publication transitions from black and white to full colour as the story evolves.

The Notted Island Synopsis

Set in a world where everything was once black and white, The Notted Island centres on the island known as Last Island. It’s the final place where colour has never touched. The island’s Nott (being charged with drawing the night sky) is making mistakes, and an “Automated Night Sky” salesman, Marion, arrives promising a mechanical solution.

Protagonist Tisky (Umbertiska Lupp), a spirited young islander with a pocketful of cake and a head filled with the world above finds her purpose. Sensing that the salesman’s scheme is more sinister than helpful, she resolves to rescue the true night sky by seeking out the estranged Nott and restoring harmony to her home. Along the way she enlists help from others including river sprites and an eager, puppy-like, time-telling shadow named Jink!

Check out a beautiful launch video from Flying Eye Books and Katherine Child here:

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The Notted Island Review

Throughout the book, right until the final few pages it felt like that moment just before you properly wake where you’re holding onto a dream before it becomes a wisp of a memory. It’s an otherworldly book. You feel like you are reading shrouded in mist, in darkness, with the world just out of reach.

The chapter titles are descriptive, they tell everything and nothing and it is only once you have stumbled upon the next chapter through the ethereal mire that you understand the meaning of the title.

I didn’t want to put this book down. Firstly, I particularly loved the strong nature themes throughout the book and how Katherine’s setting descriptions make you feel like you are truly there. A perfect book for those who don’t always feel that they fit in the world they are in. This book will whisk you away to another time and place.

Wonderful Words

I do love books that allow me to discover unknown words or words that I adore. Here’s a couple from The Notted Island that sang to me. New to me was Susurrus, whilst tempestuously is a delicious word that brings me joy.

Susurrus – whispering or rustling. Susurrus comes from the Latin verb susurrare, meaning “to whisper” or “to hum” and is considered onomatopoeic.

Tempestuously – in a way that is stormy, violent, or full of strong, turbulent emotion; resembling or marked by a tempest. Where tempest is a violent storm, usually involving strong winds and often rain, thunder, lightning, or hail. It’s from Latin tempestas meaning – storm, weather, season, time.

If you’re looking for more new words I just discovered a new Japanese word that I love – Komorebi (木漏れ日). Check out this post from Hannes van Eeden to find out more.

Katherine has a magical way of bringing words to life. Here’s a a line from the book that really spoke to me – ‘…the gloom of the island began to feel protective rather than threatening.’ Plus how incredible is this – ‘The wind carried scents which made her think of early starts on frosted, buttery mornings. Walks on gibbously moony nights.’ Just wow!

Book to Take Action

The Notted Island is a book that calls to me to put pen to paper. Of Tisky…’She added to her own journal, writing nighttime observations, drawing constellations of the moon as it waxed, waned and framed itself in little clouds.’ I love when a book inspires me to do something new or in this case do more of something I enjoy but haven’t given enough time to. It’s prompted my daughter and I to get back out our nature journals together.

Tempted by The Notted Island?

If you’re intrigued and would like to learn more you can read the first two chapters to get a glimpse into this intriguing, mysterious read here. I felt this book was spectacular and can’t wait to see what Katherine does next.

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What We’re Reading

We’re a family of bookworms. Here’s what else we’re reading or sat next on our TBR (to be read) piles.