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Ann Kelley

Author of Lost Girls

13+ Works 168 Members 9 Reviews

About the Author

Ann Kelley is a photographer and prize-winning poet whoonce nearly played cricket for Cornwall. She has previouslypublished a collection of poetry and photographs, a book ofphotos of St Ives families and an audio book of cat stories.She lives with her husband and cats on the edge of a cliffin show more Cornwall where they have survived a flood, a landslip, alightning strike and the roof blowing off. show less

Series

Works by Ann Kelley

Lost Girls (2012) 51 copies
The Bower Bird (2007) 35 copies
The Burying Beetle (2005) 23 copies
Runners (2013) 20 copies
Inchworm (2008) 14 copies
Koh Tabu (2010) 12 copies
Last Days in Eden (2014) 4 copies
A Snail's Broken Shell (2010) 2 copies
A Snail's Broken Shell (2013) 2 copies
Poetry Remedy (1999) 2 copies

Associated Works

God bless the devil! : liars' bench tales (1985) — Illustrator — 6 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1941-12-17
Gender
female

Members

Reviews

No parents. No rules. No way home.

Fourteen-year-old Bonnie MacDonald couldn't be more excited for a camping trip on an island off the coast of Thailand with her fellow Amelia Earhart Cadets-the daughters of the men and women stationed there during the Vietnam War. But when a strong current deposits the girls on what their boatman calls the "forbidden island," things take a turn for the worse: A powerful storm comes to destroy their campsite, the smallest of the junior cadets is found dead, and their boatman never returns. What once seemed like a vacation in paradise has become a battle against the elements.

Peppered with short, frantic entries from Bonnie's journal, Lost Girls is a page-turning, heart-pounding adventure story about a group of teen girls fighting for their lives.

Honestly, I wasn't sure if I was ready for a modernized version of Lord of the Flies, but the historical setting caught my eye--and Thailand? Yes, please! I enjoyed learning more about life as a kid following her parents to war, and Bonnie and her friends have many interesting stories and random facts to tell.
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jothebookgirl | 3 other reviews | Jan 3, 2017 |
Fourteen-year-old Bonnie likes facts. She wants to know the “why” of things, and enjoys figuring out the best way to approach problems. She and her friends are expecting to have a wonderful time camping for 3 days on one of Thailand’s islands. Unfortunately, from the very beginning, everything goes wrong.

See rest of review at: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/lost-girls-ann-kelley/… (more)
 
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ShouldIReadIt | 3 other reviews | Sep 26, 2014 |
I can't say I really enjoyed this one. It wasn't awful but it wasn't all that compelling. The main character was supposed to be twelve but she sounded much younger which was annoying. I also didn't like the endless rambler about butterflies etc., they didn't interest me. Overall, it had some good parts but it didn't hold my attention very well.
 
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nicola26 | Mar 30, 2013 |
Logically, this novel did not really make sense to me. If you disregard that logical connection, I did enjoy the progression of the novel. It was like my right and left hemispheres of my brain were fighting for attention since they were not able to work together.

Bonnie MacDonald is on a sort of girlscout-esque trip to an island off of Thailand, where she is living because her father is currently stationed there as part of the UK's armed forces. Due to unforeseen forces, the girls and their counselor end p on a different island. This is where the logic did not really fit for me. If you planned on going to one island, and all the parents of the girls (all are minors) expect you to be at that one island, why would you chose to stay at the random island you reached by being blown off course? How does this make sense to anyone? This was my main problem with the novel just because the source of all of their problems seems completely avoidable to me... and I don't understand why they didn't... you know... avoid them... My only other criticism is that there are three characters in specific who never change their attitudes, even when they are clearly in a survival situation. I cannot possibly fathom how they would completely disregard everything that needed to be done... Even if they were just unnaturally unhelpful, they should have some sense of the danger and urgency of the situation.

Other than that, the story was enjoyable. I loved how a good portion of the novel is explained through Bonnie's drawings and maps (which I wish were actually shown) and pages of her diary/journal (which were actually shown). Her attitudes towards her journal were really interesting to watch develop; she goes through periods of wishing no one will ever see it, so writing because it may be the last thing her parents read of her, and everything in between. It made me think about all the "primary documents" that people read to study history, which include diaries, letters, etc. - all things that people create solely for themselves and expect to be private. Does that privacy diminish once a person dies? It is just something interesting to think about.

Another aspect that I loved was getting to know the island, and how the characters changed once they became more familiar with what surrounds them. It was the secret aspects that the characters keep from each other that were the most interesting to learn about. Which characters know what? And how much are they willing to share?

This book is definitely presented for younger audiences. It is not specifically Middle Grade, but the narrator's voice is very young and I can see tweens/early teens enjoying this novel even more than I did.
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ilikethesebooks | 3 other reviews | Sep 29, 2012 |

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Statistics

Works
13
Also by
1
Members
168
Popularity
#126,679
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
9
ISBNs
29

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