The Lost Island by Samantha Wheeler, illustrated by Anke Noack

Title: The Lost Island

Author: Samantha Wheeler, illustrated by Anke Noack

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: UQP

Published: 4^th August 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 224

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: Bestselling and award-winning Australian author Samantha Wheeler returns with this thrilling desert island survival story full of action, mystery and adventure.Theo thinks there’s nothing worse than being stuck on a Pacific cruise with his dad, new stepmum and annoying stepsister. But when he’s thrown overboard during a storm and washes up on a desert island, he suddenly has much bigger problems.

As Theo tackles castaway life – finding food, water and shelter – he discovers the island is full of mysteries: spooky noises, possible ghosts and the strangest birds he’s ever seen. With survival getting tougher by the day and no rescue in sight, Theo is desperate to get back to his family. But to escape the island, he must first unlock its secrets – and reckon with the power of nature.

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After many years living alone after his mum died, Theo’s dad remarries Lyn, and they move into her house with her and her daughter Mozzie, who is good at everything. Who does everything and who gets to take over every afternoon with her afterschool activities. Even dad has started focusing more on her. Lyn and Dad think it’ll help the family get closer if they take a cruise from Sydney to Hawaii.

Theo is washed overboard during a storm, and lands on an island called The Lost Island. Here, he has to adjust to being a castaway, and find food and shelter amidst the spooky noises of the island and its other mysteries, including a stranded professor and strange birds that have never been seen elsewhere for a very long time.

Theo is desperate to get back, but to get back to his family, he needs to unlock the secrets of the island…and work out what really exists and what doesn’t.

In Samantha Wheeler’s new book, adventure is the name of the day. She has come up with another way to tell a story where the characters can’t solve everything with technology. A remote island, castaways, ghosts and things that go bump. It’s all about survival, and each day, this seems to be getting further and further away. Yet, can the mysterious Professor Staggered help Theo? And how?

The Lost Island is an interesting book about nature’s power and survival, and how we can use what we have to get through. Or what we can do to help recycle and keep the world cleaner, but without being didactic about it. The story is shaped by Theo’s experiences as he navigates the unknown, as we all do throughout our lives. Though perhaps not in quite as dramatic a fashion as being stranded on a deserted island that nobody seems to know about.

Theo’s adventures with dodos, the tides and building a raft form some of the key moments of the story, and his interactions with the professor also have an impact, perhaps playing on what being lost can do, and how people react to trauma and difficult situations where it feels like there is no way out. There’s definitely tension and unease, yet at the same time, I don’t think kids will get too scared. Maybe in some parts, but the book is filled with hope for reunion and joy in finding out what you can do for yourself. Joy in finding out what you are really capable of.

At the start of this novel, I felt for Theo. It felt like he was on the outside of his family, always waiting to be included, pushed to the side because of how good Mozzie was at things. I could see that he wanted to be more than what everyone thought he was, yet he was grappling with worries and fears that he had probably held for a very long time.

All in all, this was a fun middle grade novel that combines adventure with survival and facts in an interesting way that I hope readers will enjoy.