The Floating Isalands

Title: The Floating Islands

Author: Rachel Neumeier

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 9780375947059

Available: February 2011

Trei can not believe his eyes when he first sees The Floating Islands on the ship he has taken from his now destroyed country. The other thing he sees is the kajuraihi and Trei becomes sky mad. His cousin, a girl, shouldn't know how he feels, but she does and has her own madness. Can the two of them together, yet apart, save their world?

This book started out a little slow for me but it wasn't long until I was drawn into another world where men can fly and dragons still roam the land. The main characters were both strong young people, but knew that they had a lot to learn from their elders. Just like many teens, they still didn't know how to trust the adults in their lives, but everyone must make their own decisions and bear the consequences. The imagery of the islands above the earth with it's delicate bridges was fantastic. I could see the boys as they took their first steps to the unknown. The suspense built until the very last pages of the book and I was left feeling good about the book, but yet something is still nagging at me...not sure what it is (actually I do know, but I hate spoilers), but maybe a sequel? I would love that!

This is classified as young adult, as far as language..very clean, relationships...even cleaner, vocabulary and word building....challenging. A middle school youth may have trouble with some of the names and vocabulary, but hey I'm all for dictionaries in every room!

The author has written several other sci fi books (adult). She loves dogs, gardening and cooking and actually two of those three are very much entwined in this book. For more info on Ms. Neumeier you can check out her webpage.

I give it 6 out of 7 thumbs up... If you like science fiction books, you'll want to definitely pick up a copy, not a good book if you are looking for romance and love.

Thank you to Star Book Tours for allowing my to join the arc tour of this book. No compensation was given to me for the review of this book and all ideas expressed are all mine (typo's included).