Orphan Island

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2017

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-20

Chapters 21-25

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 6 Summary: “Bedtime Tales”

When Ben realizes that Jinny has already taken Ess to discard her shoes and get new clothing, he’s disappointed because Jinny was supposed to take him along and give him his first Elder Lesson. Jinny claims that there’s nothing to learn even though, earlier that day, she regretted that Deen didn’t explain to her what to do if a kid doesn’t want to throw the shoes away. They eat grilled oysters for dinner.

Jinny explains to Ess that each night when three stars appear in the sky, it’s time to meet everyone else at the fire circle. If someone doesn’t show up on time, everyone else will worry about them, unless the person specified earlier that they wouldn’t be there for some reason. Joon points out that Jinny forgot to get a book to read aloud to the group—that’s now one of her jobs each night as Elder. Jinny rushes to the book cabin and chooses a random book. Everybody has read them all already (except Ess); only a limited number of books are left on the island, each with the name “Abigail Ellis” hand-written on the inside as well as Abigail’s notes in the margins commenting on each story. When a book becomes too worn out to use anymore, they bury it in a book cemetery. Jinny is disappointed that she can’t read the “dead” books.

Jinny reads a book aloud, apparently The Giving Tree, to the group and shushes them to pay attention. Sam and Ben wish their trees would talk, but Eevie thinks the tree in the book is “stupid,” which is similar to what Abigail thought (as her notes indicate). The kids then go to their cabins, and Jinny explains to Ess who Abigail was: presumably a kid who lived on the island years ago, before any of the current ones were here. She wrote in all the books, and they always like to check what she thought, which sparks discussion among the current group, almost as if Abigail is an extended member of the family or a book group leader.

Chapter 7 Summary: “Almost Magical”

Jinny teaches Ess how to make the bed, which Ess enthusiastically adopts as her own daily chore. Ben asks Jinny if she’ll go with Joon on a “fetch” to get some “snaps” (presumably grapes) so that they can leave them in the sun for several “sleeps” (days) to make “dried snaps” (presumably raisins). Jinny worries that Ess isn’t old enough to climb the cliffs to get to where the snaps grow, but Joon says she’s old enough and Ess needs to learn how to keep herself safe once Jinny leaves—rather than learning to rely on Jinny to keep her safe.

Jinny, Joon, and Ess hike, gather snaps, and then leave them out on the rocks to dry. They also “cliff jump” because the wind on the island always magically pushes them back up no matter what. Ess thinks this is quite fun. They then slide back down the cliffs to take a shortcut back home.

Chapter 8 Summary: “Minor Adjustments”

Ess had a great time gathering snaps and cliff jumping, and she keeps asking to go back, but Jinny says they can’t just do her favorite thing every day. However, they can return in 10 days to get the dried snaps. Today, they must go on a fetch to get honey. Nat, Eevie, Jinny, and Ess hike across the prairie, which is where the chickens roam and lay eggs. Jinny teaches Ess to respect the chickens, as well as the wild cats, which are not trainable and can’t be kept in the cabins as pets but still live happily on the island and don’t bother the kids. The girls reach the beehives, which are in boxes that were apparently set up by someone before any of the current children arrived on the island. At first, Ess is nervous, but Jinny explains that the bees don’t want to sting them, so as long as they’re gentle, careful, and quiet, it’ll be okay. They gather honey safely.

Ben periodically asks Jinny for Elder Lessons, but she continues to refuse him, claiming that they aren’t necessary. Meanwhile, Jinny struggles to teach Ess how to swim. Swimming is one of the three most important things that Elders are to teach their Cares—in addition to reading and cooking. Because they live on an island, not knowing how to swim is unsafe, but Ess cries whenever Jinny lets go of her in the water. One day, Jinny gives up trying to teach Ess to swim because she doesn’t appear to be making progress.

Chapter 9 Summary: “Nice Work”

Ben asks Jinny and Ess to fetch some snails from the tide pools for dinner. Eevie calls Jinny lazy because Ess can’t swim yet. At the tide pools, Ess is frightened by an eel as well as the sea, which she realizes could kill her by drowning her. That night, before Ess falls asleep, she needs reassurance that the ocean can’t get inside their cabin.

Chapter 10 Summary: “Swim or Sink”

Because Ess got scared at the tide pools, Jinny decides to take a few days off from her swimming lessons, letting Ess rest instead. Joon argues that giving Ess a break will only make her even more afraid of swimming when she tries again later. Jinny says she’s been trying to teach her for weeks. Joon says all Jinny does is carry her around and then give up when she lets go and Ess cries, and that’s why Ess has learned nothing about how to swim. Jinny retorts that Joon can try teaching Ess to swim herself if she thinks she can do better.

Joon then goes to get Ess and throws her off the dock into the deep water. Ess screams and panics; Jinny runs and jumps in after her. However, by the time Jinny gets there, Ess is already treading water on her own—still struggling but making a lot of progress. Soon, Ess is proud of herself, showing off her new skill for Jinny.

Jinny shares with Ben that Ess sometimes brings up “Mama.” Ben always thought the children were orphans and had no parents, which is why they were sent to the island. Jinny thought that too but now questions it because of Ess. Jinny doesn’t like the thought that parents would send their own kids away or that kids would be taken from their parents. However, Ben replies that it’s not important how they got to the island because they’re here now, plus he likes it there. Jinny likes it there too, but these questions—and now also the fact that she seems to be the only one worried about them—still bother her.

Chapters 6-10 Analysis

One thing that connects the novel to the “real” world is the books that the children read, several of which are apparently allusions to real books, such as The Giving Tree, Where the Wild Things Are, and the Harry Potter series. This suggests that the world beyond the island is the same world readers live in and that the children on the island are still connected to that larger world, albeit by very thin threads. Everything the children know about the outside world comes from their limited library of books, all of which contain Abigail Ellis’s name on the inside cover along with her notes in the margins. The children recognize that some things in books are fictional but aren’t always sure which parts because they can’t remember what that world is like. This mystery of what the larger world might be like is one thing that propels children to leave the island once it’s their time.

The author amps up the novel’s magical realism elements in this section through the island’s magical winds, which never allow children or even objects to fall off cliffs. This implies that the island magically protects the children, in general, from dangers that might otherwise threaten their lives on an island with no adults to enforce safety rules. However, all the children worry about one significant danger: the ocean. Technically, it isn’t part of the island, and maybe that’s part of why they fear it. The water doesn’t magically keep the children afloat like the winds do; for example, they must learn to swim. Wisely, the children have designated swimming as one of the three things that Elders must teach their Cares before leaving (in addition to reading and cooking). In this task, Jinny encounters trouble because teaching Ess how to swim doesn’t come effortlessly to her, like her other jobs of teaching the girl to gather firewood or make a bed. Jinny isn’t opposed to helping the group, but when her duties become more difficult, she’s quick to give up.

In this section and throughout the rest of the novel, Jinny faces challenges that exemplify one of the book’s main themes: The Increased Responsibility of Maturity. All the children have responsibilities for helping one another, so Jinny is used to this, but when she becomes the Elder, she gains several additional responsibilities, which she resists. Specifically, she struggles with teaching and repeatedly claims that she’s not a good teacher, as if this is set in stone by age 12 and she can’t do anything to improve it. She doesn’t try even once to give Ben an Elder Lesson and gives up early on teaching Ess how to swim and read. She reasons that she can simply do things for Ess instead of teaching her to do them herself. However, this approach ignores the fact that Jinny’s time to leave is rapidly approaching.

This section continues to develop the unique culture and language that the children have developed for their small island community. There’s often a sense of play attached to their duties; for example, they call gathering supplies a “fetch,” as if it’s a game. Although the island apparently lacks any fantastical plant or animal species, the children’s use of made-up words gives a fantastical feel to real animals and plants (for example, grapes and raisins, which they call “snaps” and “dried snaps”).