Emily Windsnap and the Falls of Forgotten Island

Emily's fast-paced, first-person narration lends immediacy to her latest quixotic quest, one that tests the bonds of friendship and closes with a surprising twist. Spot art reinforces the maritime theme; friendship and relationship angst ground the story emotionally...Exciting new adventures, risks, and mysteries for Emily Windsnap fans.—Kirkus ReviewsThis book has it all: tested friendships, danger, young love, fantasy, adventure, and mystery and all of this is wrapped up in secrets that are strategically revealed. Young readers won’t be able to put this one down.—Story Monsters Ink Liz Kessler is the author of the New York Times best-selling Emily Windsnap series as well as three adventures about Philippa Fisher and her fairy godsister. She is also the author of the middle-grade novels A Year Without Autumn, North of Nowhere, and Has Anyone Seen Jessica Jenkins? Liz Kessler lives in England. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The first sign of trouble was the rain. xa0 xa0Rain that fell like a river. Like a torrent. Like an avalanche crashing down with such ferocxadity some thought it would split the earth in two. Others argued the earth could not breaku2009—u2009but that it might perhaps be drowned.xa0 xa0Most didn’t argue at all. They ran. They hid. They protected themselves and their families as well as they could, waiting out a storm the likes of which no one had ever seen before. The likes of which no one would have thought possible.xa0 xa0The likes of which, surely, could have been created only by magic. Nothing of this earth could produce such ferocity.xa0 xa0The rain continued on and on as hours spilled into days. It fell into the ocean with such relentless force that the sea levels rose. It swirled across swells, rising into mountainous peaks, drilled down into whirlpools, and darkened the sky so that it seemed the rain had even drowned the sun.xa0 xa0And then, like a hungry shark closing in on its prey, like a wizard finding the perfect ingredient for his spell, the rain homed in on what it was looking for: the island in the center of the ocean. An island with no more than a hundred inhabitants.xa0 xa0But the rain wanted only one of them.xa0 xa0Elsewhere, the sky lightened. But not above this island. Above the island, it seemed all the darkness of the world, the darkness of a thousand nights, the darkness of the most tortured soul, was gathered together into one cloud.xa0 xa0The cloud was now so large, it was as if the very fabric of space had opened up to swallow the island whole. xa0 xa0For a moment, the world held its breath.xa0 xa0And then the cloud erupted. Like a giant dragon breathing fire, the darkness unleashed its demons upon the island. Down they rained, sparks flying across the sky like fireworks as the spell was cast.xa0 xa0Then the rain and the lightning focused on the center of the island, boring a hole all the way through it.xa0 xa0Enormous arrows of rain continued to pour down all around, so hard that the island’s edges were beaten and hewn into rough, ragged cliffs, gigantic, jagged teeth that refused to let anyone in or out of the land beyond them. xa0 xa0Tides rose: huge, angry swells that seemed would never again become calm.xa0 xa0Eventually, the cloud reached the final side of the island. The longest, straightest edge.xa0 xa0The first cannonball of rain crashed against the foot of the cliffs so hard that it dented the cliff itself.xa0 xa0The second punched a hole above the first. Three more times the cloud fired explosions of water at the cliff, higher and higher, as if it were chasing its prey to the top.xa0 xa0Who was the prey though?xa0 xa0The people retreated as the balls of water crashed into their land. Each explosion sent them deeper and deeper into the island’s hidden forest, forced them into shelters, and contained them in clearings and caves.xa0 xa0There were those who saw a large figure rising out of the wateru2009—u2009a figure of giant, contorted proportions.xa0 xa0There were those who heard words streaking through the air.xa0 xa0“Betrayed me . . .”xa0 xa0“We had a deal . . .”xa0 xa0“Never forgive . . .”xa0 xa0The words grew softer as the rain climbed higher and higher up the mountain beyond the cliffs. xa0 xa0As the rain slowed, the cloud took moisture from the fierce swells, growing and growing so that soon the entire island was hidden inside the cloud. xa0 xa0Eventually, the sky beyond the island cleared. xa0 xa0It was over. xa0 xa0All that was left was a fierce swell, an island cut to shreds, and a thick blanket of fog surrounding it. An angry, raging waterfall screamed down the cliffside, forming a deadly barrier to the bay behind it. xa0 xa0Those who had survived crept out of their hiding places to find they were now trapped on the island by the cliffs and the falls. Closed off from the world. Forgotten. Abandoned.xa0 xa0And for more than five hundred years, that was how it stayed. Emily, are you listening to me?” xa0 xa0My best friend’s voice jolted me so hard I jumped and splashed myself in the face. “What? What?” I spluttered. “Sorry, I must have dozed off.”xa0 xa0“Ha!” Shona said with a laugh. “I’m clearly not very interesting!”xa0 xa0“No!” I protested. “You are! Of course you are. I’m just . . .”xa0 xa0“You’re exhausted.” Shona finished my senxadtence for me.xa0 xa0“I guess I am,” I admitted. “Sorry.”xa0 xa0“It’s OK,” Shona said. “Your life has been crazy lately. I’m surprised you’re still in one piece.”xa0 xa0Shona was right. We’d recently come home from a geography field trip that had been the latxadest in a long line of adventures.xa0 xa0“I barely am,” I said. “I mean, can you actually think of more than a week at a time when I wasn’t being almost squeezed to death by a sea monster or getting trapped with sirens in a forgotten underxadwater cave or dodging hammerhead sharks to get my dad out of Neptune’s underwater prison?” xa0 xa0Shona flicked her tail as she swam up to the water’s edge. Shona’s a mermaid. Kind of like I am, except she’s a full-xadtime one. I’m a mermaid only when I go in water. I’m an ordinary girl the rest of the time. xa0 xa0“Well, yes,” Shona replied. “There was the time when you escaped from Neptune’s evil brother in the frozen Arctic. You weren’t doing any of those things then.”xa0 xa0I laughed. “Exactly. And to top it off, we go on a school trip where the most exciting activity is supposed to be studying local rock formations, and what happens? I discover a spooky underwater ship and have to rescue a boat full of people who are trapped in Atlantis!”xa0 xa0Shona smiled as she swished her tail, spreading droplets of water in a sparkly arc above the sea. “You need a break,” she said.xa0 xa0“I probably do,” I admitted. “Just a little one. What are the chances that will happen?”xa0 xa0Shona frowned. “Hmm. Slim. It is you we’re talking about here.”xa0 xa0I splashed water at her, and she laughed and ducked under the surface. Read more