Nim's Island

On a remote tropical island in the Pacific Ocean, a girl named Nim lives with her father, Jack, a scientist. Nim is wild-haired and resourceful, wearing a spyglass, a whistling shell, and a red pocketknife on cords around her neck. Her closest companions are Selkie, a protective sea lion, and Fred, a marine iguana with an unusual taste for coconut. When Jack sails away on a three-day trip to collect plankton, Nim stays behind to manage the island alone.

Nim's mother disappeared when Nim was a baby after a tourist company called the Troppo Tourists frightened a blue whale she was studying, causing it to dive. Nim's mother never resurfaced. Jack discovered this island, which features white shell beaches, a volcano called Fire Mountain, a freshwater pool, and a protective reef. He built a hut, installed a satellite dish and solar panel to power a laptop and cell phone, and planted a garden. Jack publishes articles but never reveals the island's location, fearing the Troppo Tourists would ruin it. Before departing, he promised to phone every sunset and told Nim to send an SOS if she did not hear from him for three days.

Jack calls the first evening as planned. After hanging up, Nim checks for e-mail and finds none, feeling lonely. That night a storm lashes the island and Selkie curls around Nim protectively. The next day, Jack does not call. Nim pushes away nightmare images and reads Mountain Madness, a novel Jack recommended, until her flashlight fades.

The following morning, still with no word, Nim finds an e-mail addressed to Jack from Alex Rover, asking about building a coconut raft. Though the letter is not for her, it eases her loneliness, and she replies. After finishing Mountain Madness, she notices the author is Alex Rover. A newspaper clipping inside describes Alex as a mysterious male adventure hero. Nim concludes her correspondent is a real-life hero. Alex replies, revealing her real name is Alexandra and describing herself as un-heroic. Nim, unfamiliar with the name, continues to assume Alex is a man, while Alex assumes Nim lives with a full family.

Far out on the ocean, Jack lies injured on his drifting sailboat, his satellite dish smashed and rudder broken. Nim hauls 20 coconuts to Keyhole Cove, a calm reef-enclosed pool, to test whether they can support a raft. She spots Galileo, a frigate bird, carrying a note in his leg band. Jack's letter explains the damage but tells Nim not to send an SOS, promising he will get home. Relieved, Nim e-mails Alex about the experiment.

That evening, Chica, a green sea turtle, crawls onto Turtle Beach to lay eggs. Over the following days, Nim and Alex exchange messages about island life. When Alex sends a map drawn for her story, Nim discovers the fictional island is marked at the exact location of her real island. Alex explains she invented the location and asks Nim to be her "island eyes."

Nim climbs Fire Mountain with Fred to survey the island and search for Jack's sails. From the summit she sees nothing. The volcano erupts without warning, and Nim and Fred sprint downhill. Nim twists her foot and gashes her knee badly. Jack's next letter, carried by Galileo, reveals he is rigging a rudder but had to retreat from circling sharks.

Jack spots the Troppo Tourists' cruise ship from the ocean and raises SOS flags, but the ship passes without noticing. The next afternoon, Nim sees the ship and e-mails Alex, who suggests making the island appear dangerous. Nim drives the sea lions to block the reef entrance, lures iguanas to cover the beach, and has Galileo dive-bomb the tourist boat. When the cruise ship persists, she dumps a rotting shark over a volcanic steam vent. The blocked vent explodes in a choking geyser of stench, and the ship steams away.

Nim's knee infection worsens. She knots a torn fishing net into two bag-shaped rafts, loading 10 coconuts into each. She tests them and e-mails the results. Galileo delivers a letter from Jack announcing he has fixed the rudder and will return in a day or two. Nim e-mails Alex about her infected knee and her loneliness. Alex rereads all of Nim's messages, realizes the child never mentions another person, and sends urgent medical instructions, asking whether Nim is alone.

Nim follows the instructions and her knee improves. She tells Alex about her mother's disappearance and Jack's situation. Alex confesses that her heroes are pretend, that she is not brave, and not a man. Devastated, Nim writes a furious letter: Whenever she was scared, she imagined what Alex would do, and she even wished Alex were her father instead of Jack. She burns the letter in a bonfire, then admits to Selkie that Alex did not exactly lie. She begins to giggle at the misunderstanding, realizing she burned the letter because part of her does not want to lose Alex. The next morning she e-mails Alex, acknowledging the misunderstanding and asking when Alex is coming. Alex replies: "Now."

Alex flies to Sunshine Island and e-mails Nim that she will board a Troppo Tourists boat. Nim calls in a panic, shouting that the Troppo Tourists caused her mother's death. Alex takes a sailing crash course, buys a small blue sailboat, and sails to the ship. The starstruck crew hope she will write about them. Alex tells a terrifying account of the island's dangers, then the story of a scientist whose wife was killed when a noisy boat chased a whale. The weeping captain agrees to leave the island alone. Alex sets off in her sailboat.

Galileo delivers a letter from Jack warning of a coming storm and ordering Nim to shelter in the Emergency Cave, the island's storm-shelter cave. Nim dials Alex to warn her, but the phone goes dead. She hauls equipment over the Black Rocks, the rocky outcrop between the hut and the cave, as the storm descends. On the ocean, Alex's mast snaps and her boat begins to sink. Tied to the vessel by a rope she cannot untie, she takes what may be her last breath.

After the storm, Nim spots a speck through her spyglass and plunges into the sea with Selkie, Fred, and Chica. Waves rip Nim from Selkie's neck, but the sea lion pushes her back to the surface. Remembering a scene from Mountain Madness, Nim pulls out her pocketknife and cuts Alex free from the sinking boat. Chica arrives pushing one of the coconut rafts from Keyhole Cove. Alex climbs onto the raft while Nim rides Selkie, and together they reach Shell Beach.

The hut is gone. Over the following days, Nim and Alex salvage what they can and tell stories by the bonfire each night. The sea lions honk at a shape drifting through the reef: Jack, who used the second coconut raft to float home after the storm carried it from Keyhole Cove to where he was stranded.

When Nim asks about rebuilding, Jack suggests they leave so she can have a normal life. Nim shouts that this is her normal life and the one she wants. Alex and Jack take a long walk and return smiling. Alex e-mails her editor, asking that her apartment be packed up and shipped to the island, promising a new book in return. Alex is staying permanently with Nim and Jack, and the story of their adventure will become her next book.