Ember and the Island of Lost Creatures by Jason Pamment

Title: Ember and the Island of Lost Creatures

Author: Jason Pamment

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 27^th June 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 288

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: From Treasure in the Lake‘s Jason Pamment comes a graphic novel of friendship and self-discovery in a gorgeously illustrated world, perfect for fans of Amulet and Lightfall.

Fitting in can be hard, especially when you’re as small as Ember. He’s hoping his luck changes when Lua, a kindly sea turtle, escorts him across the ocean to a school for little creatures on a wondrous island. There, Ember learns that first days can also be hard – especially when they involve fantastical cave-dwellers, ferocious storms and classmates that aren’t interested in making friends.

As he struggles to adapt to his school, Ember finds himself at the heart of an otherworldly mystery, facing a strange monster from the deep. And though Ember’s classmates may seem of little help, any good student knows appearances can be deceiving – and friendship can come from the most unexpected of places.

~*~

Ember longs to go to school, but he lives in a world where he is much smaller than everyone else – so tiny, he’s probably the size of Tom Thumb! One day he tumbles down a drain towards a beach, where he meets a turtle named Lua. Lua takes Ember to a magical island where there are others like him – creatures who are different, or lost. Here, Ember finally gets to go to school, but after his first day, he’s not sure if he will fit in with Natia, Viggo, Koren, Doug, and Ana – especially as Viggo seems to have taken an instant dislike to him, and Natia doesn’t want to talk. She doesn’t seem interested in being friends with anyone. Ember struggles to adapt, until he is plunged into a mystery in this new world – a monster that everyone is scared of. Ember must find the courage to defeat the monster, whilst finding friendship in unlikely places.

I don’t read many graphic novels – but this one caught my eye when it arrived, and I thought I would give it a go to see what it was like and what Jason, the author-illustrator, came up with. Ember’s world starts off like ours, but the ventures into a magical world when Lua finds him, and touches on issues of finding rubbish in the sea and environment along Ember’s journey to the island through the visuals, showing the ingenuity of Lua to use the rubbish to create things that Ember can use. There are many spreads that are images only, which I took time to explore and work out the order that the panels needed to be read in, as the layout is very different to a text novel. You almost need to read one panel at a time, the top, then the middle, and finally, the bottom panels, rather than one row up and down at a time. I caught myself doing this a few times – it was just the way my eyes went down the page with the images, but I always adjusted and then the story made more sense, and I got more out of it.

At its heart, this is a story about friendship and adjusting to a new place. Every child will go through changes in school or family or friendship in their lives, and everyone deals with bullying in some way, and Jason’s story reflects how this can impact our mental health, and the little things that hurt us. Yet there is light in the way Natia tries to get to know Ember – in how their relationship develops as they start off not understanding each other, with one being quite secretive at first. It is a reluctant friendship and illustrates the hesitation that people can have when they are new somewhere, or meet someone new, or maybe just don’t know how to talk to people about themselves. I liked that Ember was positive and confident in this book, but he also had fears that came through from time to time, reassuring readers that it is okay to have a range of emotions and reactions, and that we don’t always know how we are going to react to something. I think this book is one that will be great to read, and is a good addition to the graphic novels that are out there, especially as I am starting to see more graphic novels by Australian creatives, giving readers more choice and more access to stories that they can relate to and enjoy. The focus on friendship is an important aspect of this novel and one that made it truly special. I hope readers enjoy it.