Review: Searching for Sky by Jillian Cantor

Title: Searching for Sky
Author: Jillian Cantor
Series: N/a
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's
Publication Date: May 13, 2014
Source: from publisher via Netgalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Sky and River have always lived on Island, the only world they’ve ever known. Until the day River spots a boat. Across Ocean, in a place called California, Sky is separated from River and forced to live with a grandmother she’s just met. Here the rules for survival are different. People rely on strange things like cars and cell phones. They keep secrets from one another. And without River, nothing makes sense. Sky yearns for her old life where she was strong and capable, not lost and confused. She must find River so they can return to Island, but the truth behind how they ended up there in the first place will come as the biggest shock of all

When I saw Searching for Sky go up on Netgalley, I was interested right away. The description had me with “lived on Island”. I have this thing for story lines involving being stuck on islands. I read a book when I was a little kid, and I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called, but I loved it and it was about this kid surviving alone on an island. Plus, I watched Gilligans Island growing up, even though it was kinda old school even back then.

I’ll be honest though, In Searching for Sky, there isn’t much island life going on. Sure there is some, and there are flash backs of how things were, but for the most part, this book takes place in California. It very much centers on Sky learning how to live in the real world. I expected this, and I loved every minute.

I can see how it may be slow going for some readers once the excitement of leaving island passes, but I found everything after just as fascinating. Sky has no clue how to live in this new world. She doesn’t know what a toilet is, clothes, anything. She only knows what her mother has told her. She’s thrust into the home of her grandmother, whom she has no recollection of. It’s hard for both of them, and their relationship was just heartbreaking. As a huge fan of contemporaries these days, I enjoyed watching Sky work through all these things. Her feelings for life off the island, the reasons she ended up on Island in the first place, her feelings for River (The boy she grew up with), and so many other things.

Ahh and the reason they were on Island, that’s a doozy, and I’ll admit I had my suspicions, but whoa, how it all went down was a bit different than I had imagined. So interesting and cray cray.

This story left me with damp eyes and feelings of hope. I really loved Searching For Sky. It snuck up and surprised me. It’s awesome when books do that, I knew I would like it but it surpassed my expectations.

About the author:

Jillian Cantor has a BA in English from Penn State University and an MFA from The University of Arizona. She is the author of award-winning novels for teens and adults including, most recently, the critically acclaimed MARGOT, which was a Library Reads pick for September 2013 and also featured in O the Oprah Magazine, People, Ladies Home Journal, and Time.com. Her next book for teens, SEARCHING FOR SKY, will be published by Bloomsbury US on 5/13/14 and Bloomsbury UK on 7/3/14. A Scholastic edition will also be sold in Scholastic book clubs and fairs in the 2014-15 school year. Born and raised in a suburb of Philadelphia, Jillian currently lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons.

Find Jillian:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads 

Labels: bloomsbury, contemporary, deserted island, Jillian Cantor, Searching For Sky