Disclosure: *I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the opinions view here are mine and mine alone only. Thank you @ Penguin Random House.
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This enchanting middle-grade adventure follows twelve-year-old Gertie Milk, who washes up on the island of Skuldark, and finds that all of her memories are gone. Home to helpful Slug Lamps, delicious moonberries, and a ferocious Guard Worm, the island is full of oddities, including a cozy cottage containing artifacts from every corner of history.
It is there that Gertie discovers she has been chosen as the next Keeper of Lost Things, tasked with the mission of returning objects to history’s most important figures right when they need them most. With the help of a time machine disguised as a vintage sports car and the guidance of her fellow Keeper, Kolt, Gertie dodges an elephant army in ancient Alexandria, crashes a 1920s flapper party, and battles a ruthless Zhou Dynasty king.
But soon, Gertie encounters an enemy that threatens everything the Keepers stand for: The Losers, villains who don’t want to keep order but destroy it. Now, Gertie must uncover the truth of her own past if she wants to stop the Losers and set history back in place.
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How exciting and wonderful it is to find out that there lies a place where your long lost forgotten precious toy or pen or book or anything has been just laying around. Now I’m certain that lost things deserve realm of their own and be return someday to save human ignorance.
Gertie Milk and the Keeper of Lost Things has creatively narrated the adventure ahead of one amnesiac girl transported to a deserted island unknowingly and been forced to adapt her surrounding for the duty she, herself, don’t pick but fate lead her to be. Gertie Milk, the (obvious) protagonist of the story, is such a cute name – milk, after all, is my favorite to drink or you do, too. The story is dosed up with humor and I feel that Mr. Peabody is somewhere in this book guiding Gertie – remember the movie which is also more into time traveling. Likewise, also gives the educational piece. The time traveling and that historical mixed up are something to like about this book. It really shows how Simon inserts these facts perfectly as I know it is in a historical literature which I do research just to be sure. So basically, you can learn after reading his book.
The book is quite fast read and you will enjoy every page you flip until the last bit. Adventure and action pack.
This also points outs the philosophical idea of what to be expected when one individual encounter losing his own memory. Wipe out all. Leaving no details even your own name. How he will first react after waking up with this state? May he choose to stick with the present or look past the way he used to live?
All along I love this book and through the series of time-space journey, Kolt’s cottage exploration, B. D. B. U. missions and Skuldark place. You definitely pick out this though MG, I think, you just have to read it since suits well in any age you are.
About the Author
Simon Van Booy
He is the best-selling author of seven books of fiction, and three anthologies of philosophy.
He has written for the New York Times, the Financial Times, NPR, and the BBC. He enjoys building robots, model airplanes, and off-road vehicles—which he likes to crash. He has an impressive umbrella collection, a Bowler hat, and carries a green thermos of tea everywhere. His books have been translated into many languages. In 2013, he founded Writers for Children, a project which helps young people build confidence in their literary abilities through annual awards. Raised in rural Wales and England, Simon currently lives between Brooklyn and Miami with his wife, daughter, Robot Rabbit Boy, and a fully-grown sheep.
Short Q&A with the AuthorHow did you choose the name Gertie Milk?
Like most of my main characters, Gertie Milk actually chose me as the author to tell her story. I’ve always liked the name Gertrude, and milk is pretty interesting—I mean, it comes from inside the body of a cow. And we drink it. When I was growing up in England, there were milkmen and milkwomen who drove around at dawn in small electric trucks, leaving bottles of milk on people’s doorsteps. Sometimes the birds would peck through the foil lids of the bottles, and lick up the cream with their tiny bird tongues. We still drank the milk though. We didn’t care. It was cold and delicious.
What was the inspiration for the book, and for Gertie Milk?
My daughter inspired the book. She said there weren’t enough tough girl characters. She wanted an action book, but also one that was really funny, and a little scary.
I really liked imagining the magical island of Skuldark. It’s a place I sometimes go to in my mind, where I can wander around the cottage, or go down into cliff, and explore the 945 bedrooms with Cave Sprites and Slug Lamps for company.
SCHEDULE Week One:October 2 – Never Too Many To Read – Review and Listicle
October 3 – The Plot Bunny – Review and Playlist
October 4 – The Hermit Librarian – Review and Playlist
October 5 – Descendants of Poseidon Reads – Review
October 6 – Folded Pages Distillery – Review
Thank you for reading!
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