Full Text Review(s)
* "An original, remarkable and very true debut. In 1775, three boats carrying English convicts bound for America wreck near an island called Tathenn, which is inhabited by natives known as Colay—who are quickly pushed onto outrider islands. Twelve years later, the Colay men have all been turned to stone; when the last baby, Robert, is born, his older sister Lucy takes him to the stone garden to die. Meanwhile, the Lord Governor and his wife have been killed in what is claimed to be a Colay uprising, leaving daughter Snowcap to rule as Child Governor under a regent. Lucy runs away with Rob, Snowcap flees the murderous regent, and which parts of the story are true—and the entire meaning of the word truth—starts to get a little murky. "Sometimes, in deepest peril...belief can blossom, and for the length of a silvery moment, magic can become the most real of real things." Beautifully written, fully realized, fast-paced—this blurs the line between fantasy and history and has winner written all over it." STARRED REVIEW

"Think alternative American history, add a touch of magic, throw in some satisfying archetypes, and you’ve got Bouwman’s first novel. In 1787, on fictional islands off of northeast America, Lucy, who is a native Colay, and Snowcap, who is British, each has an impossible situation to solve. Lucy is trying to save her newborn brother from a strange and ominous disease that turns all males on her island to stone. Snowcap is trying to find out who killed her parents and now is threatening to kill her. The 12-year-old girls are unlike in physical appearance—Lucy is dark-skinned; Snowcap is very pale— but both bear interesting facial birthmarks, and young readers will recognize the girls for the two halves of a whole that they are. Bouwman creates a fast-paced adventure that incorporates lovely, contemplative moments and creative, fully developed secondary characters, including a tribe of desert philosophers and the mysterious storytelling Gray Lady. Reminiscent of Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series in concept, and Eva Ibbotson’s Journey to the River Sea (2001) in style, Bouwman’s title will read aloud well."

"In the late summer of 1787, the last baby of the Colay people is born on a small, uncharted island off the coast of Virginia. Instead of being cause for celebration, the birth augurs grief and despair: since the baby is a boy, and he is, like other Colay males, destined to turn to stone. The Colay suspect, correctly, that the curse has something to do with the Anglish who arrived seventeen years earlier and colonized the largest of the Colay islands. The Anglish settlers are all convicts sent to the New World to become indentured servants, but a fortuitous storm relieved them of their captors and enabled them to establish a thriving economy. Some of the convicts have not changed their ways, however, and they are attempting to wrest power from their own appointed leaders and destroy the native Colays. Lucy, the new baby’s sister, who refuses to leave him to his cursed fate, and Snowcap, the imperiled Child Governor, both flee their homes, and when their paths intersect in the woods of the main island, they join forces, sometimes gladly, sometimes reluctantly, to save their people and bring a lasting peace between natives and settlers. The page-turning adventure fronts for a subtle moral tale about loyalty, perseverance, and the power of finding one’s own particular gifts. Secondary characters Adam and Philip are appealing and well drawn, adding sympathy, thief’s wisdom, and humor to balance the sometimes grumpy determination of Lucy and Snowcap. Despite the author’s note describing the accuracy of the historical detail that structures the fictional island with its colonial and indigenous residents, this is a book less for historical fiction fans than for fantasy buffs, but the combination of historical and fantasy elements gives Lucy and Snowcap’s quest folkloric as well as dramatic appeal."