Megan’s Island by Willo Davis Roberts, 1990.

School will be out soon, and eleven-year-old Megan and her best friend, Annie, are making plans for the summer. Megan’s family doesn’t have much money because her father died when she and her brother, Sandy, were very young, and her mother struggles to find a job that will pay enough to support the three of them. They’ve moved around multiple times in the last several years while her mother looks for better work, and they get by with some help from Megan’s grandfather. This summer, Megan’s family is planning to visit her grandfather at his cottage by the lake. Her grandfather is already staying there, recovering from an injured foot, and Megan’s mother agreed that Annie can come with them on the trip.

However, before school lets out for the summer, something happens that suddenly changes their plans. One evening, while their mother is in the kitchen, clearing up from dinner, she suddenly drops her favorite salad bowl, cutting herself on the glass. Megan and Sandy help her clean up the mess and bandage her cut, but they can tell that it wasn’t just clumsiness that made their mother drop the bowl. She really seems to be upset and even afraid of something. Since they didn’t have any phone calls or mail that could have given her upsetting news, they can only think that it must have been something she heard on the tv news. Their mother had been listening to the news on the small tv in the kitchen before she dropped the bowl, and she quickly turned it off when the children came to see what was wrong.

Their mother refuses to explain what upset her, and she tries to pretend that nothing is wrong, but she quickly tells the children to pack their things because she’s taking them to their grandfather at the lake early. Megan protests that school isn’t out yet, but their mother says that they’ve already finished their tests, so they won’t be missing anything important. Megan also worries that they’re leaving without Annie or even telling Annie that they’re going early, but their mother says it can’t be helped. Then, Sandy overhears their mother asking a friend of hers on the phone, asking her to put their things in storage for her while they’re gone, making the kids worry that they’re leaving for good and not just for vacation. Refusing to answer any more questions from the children, their mother hurries them through their packing and out of the house that very night. She drives them all through the night to get to the lake.

When they get to their grandfather’s cottage at the lake, he is surprised to see them, showing that their early arrival wasn’t something he had arranged with their mother. Later, Megan overhears them talking. Her grandfather urges their mother to tell them the truth about what’s happening because kids are more resilient than they seem, and whatever they’re imagining might be worse than the truth. However, their mother says that the truth really is upsetting, and while she knows that she has always insisted that her children tell the truth, telling them the truth now would mean admitting that she has already lied to them.

Megan is shaken by what she hears. What has their mother lied to them about? Is it something to do with her father? Megan barely remembers him, and their mother gets upset when she asks questions about him. Her mother seems to be hoping that this whole matter will just blow over, but her grandfather comments about how what happened eight years ago didn’t just blow over. He implies that whatever secret their mother is hiding is the real reason why the family has moved around so much, that it wasn’t just because she needed to find new jobs. Megan worries about what her mother could be hiding and what terrible thing could have happened eight years ago that would affect her family today. Then, Megan remembers that eight years ago is about when her father died.

Megan tells Sandy what she overheard and that their mother is hiding a secret, something that might have to do with their father’s death. Before either of the children can talk to their mother and ask her what’s going on, she tells them that she’s leaving them with their grandfather at the lake for a few days because there’s something she has to do. She won’t say where she’s going or what she needs to do, but she says that they’ll be safe there with their grandfather. Megan finds it disturbing that her mother made it a point to say that they’ll be safe because it implies that the reason why they left home so suddenly was that, for some reason, they weren’t safe at home. Megan also begins to wonder whether whatever danger there was at home might find them at the lake.

Sandy seems to find it easier than Megan to put aside whatever worries and secrets are following the family and just enjoy being at the lake, going fishing with their grandfather and exploring the area with Megan, although he later admits that he tried to ask their grandfather some questions while they were fishing that he refused to answer. Megan can’t stop wondering and worrying, though. She and Sandy agree that coming to the lake wasn’t just a vacation. Their mother brought them there to hide from something … or someone.

Megan remembers that, every time they’ve moved before, their mother refused to let them even write letters to friends they were leaving behind. Sandy says that she didn’t tell them not to write any letters this time, and with no phone at the cottage, there’s no other way for Megan to tell Annie what happened and to apologize for their ruined summer plans. Megan decides to go ahead and write to Annie. That letter to Annie changes everything for Megan and her brother.

Megan and Sandy go rowing out on the lake and find an island with a beautiful hiding place beneath an overhanging rock that’s almost like a cave. It becomes a special place for Megan, and she goes there to think. Then, one day, they meet a boy named Ben who’s also staying at the lake for the summer with his divorced father and has been exploring the island that Megan has started to think of as hers. Megan doesn’t like Ben at first because he’s bossy, but he proves to be someone she and Sandy can confide in when the adults won’t give them answers, and he become a useful ally in their troubles.

Ben tells the Megan and Sandy that his father said that someone in the nearby town is looking for a couple of kids with red hair, matching Megan and Sandy’s description. This man claims to be their uncle, but Megan and Sandy don’t have an uncle. Then, Megan spots a strange man prowling around the outside of their grandfather’s cottage. A letter that Megan receives from Annie says that people have been asking about them since they left town, and Ben correctly realizes that someone has traced them through Megan’s letter to Annie. Whatever trouble their mother has been hiding them from has found them. With their mother still away and their grandfather having gone to town for some x-rays on his injured foot, Megan and Sandy hide out with Ben in a tree house they’ve built on the island. The island seems to be their last safe place to hide while they wait for their mother and grandfather to return. But, when they do, will they finally get the answers they need? What terrible secret has their mother been hiding from them all these years?

The book is a winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award.

My Reaction and Some Spoilers

I didn’t read this book when I was a kid, but I did read others by the same author, The View From the Cherry Tree and Baby-Sitting is a Dangerous Job. I really liked this book. I think one of the author’s strengths is her ability to create suspense. This story is very compelling. Right from the beginning, readers as well as Megan know that her mother is behaving oddly and that what she is doing has sinister or troubling implications. There isn’t a wholesome or happy reason why anybody decides to skip town suddenly in the middle of the night. I could hardly put the book down, wanting to get into the details of the situation. It was hard for me not to skip to the end to see what happened and what it was all about, but I made myself slow down a little to appreciate the journey.

I guessed, at the beginning, that this was going to turn out to be a case of a non-custodial parent kidnapping their own children after a messy divorce. We are told that Megan’s father died when she was very little and that she barely remembers him, and then, we are told that the family moves frequently because the mother has trouble getting work as a single parent. That, by itself, isn’t necessarily sinister, but after we see the mother rush her children away in the middle of the night and we learn that she has never allowed them to keep in touch with old friends after any of their other moves, it starts to look like a suspicious pattern. I had guessed that what upset her mother while she was watching the news was that there was an announcement about the father looking for his missing children. My other thought was that maybe they were in the Witness Protection Program, possibly because their father was murdered and the mother needed protection from the people who killed him, and that what alarmed the mother on the news was that his killer was being released from prison. That second theory of mine was way off. The first one was closer, but that’s still not quite the situation, although elements of that are close to what happens in the story.

Because the suspense in this was so good, I don’t want to spoil the ending entirely. The custody of the children is the reason for the mother’s panic, but there’s a twist on it that I wasn’t quite expecting, and as the story goes on, it becomes apparent that there are two sets of people hunting for the children instead of one. One set of searchers is who the mother was expecting, but the other set is someone else who has different motives and is an even bigger threat.

I thought it was interesting that the story brought up the question of a person’s right to disappear and whether that disappearance can sometimes be justified. The fact is that it’s not a crime if an adult decides to go voluntarily missing. It’s only a crime if the adult has committed a crime prior to disappearing or in the process of their disappearance or if the person is missing because they’re the victim of a crime. Otherwise, any adult has the right to walk away from their old life, cut off old relationships, change their name, and reestablish their identity somewhere else. People can do this for a variety of reasons, but it usually has something to do with overwhelming problems in the person’s life, mental health issues, and/or abusive relationships. It occurred to me that the mother in the story might be afraid of her ex-husband because he was abusive, and she was afraid of what he might do to the kids if she had to either give him custody of them or share custody with them. Again, that’s not quite the case here, although I was thinking about it through a good part of the story because it would explain the mother’s behavior.

If the mother was a non-custodial parent or had violated custody arrangements with the children’s father, then she would have committed a crime by taking the children. However, that doesn’t turn out to be the case here. The mother hasn’t committed any crime, but the fact that she has the children with her is the reason why someone is looking for them. Missing children is a matter of legal concern and can be a matter of humanitarian concern, although even then, the issue can be complicated. Not all runaway children are “saved” by being found or returned to legal guardians, and some of them have had very good reasons for leaving toxic or abusive home environments. The sad fact of real life is that, sometimes, the people who are searching for missing children can be the very threats those children are escaping. People who disappear have reasons for doing so, but giving them the type of help they need means discovering what those reasons are.

To be honest, I’m not completely sure of the legality of the person looking for the particular children in the story or publicizing their search for them, but it is telling that this individual is using a private investigator to look for them, not the official police. The official police are not looking for the family because the mother hasn’t committed a crime. She is their real mother and has legal custody of the children. The person who is searching for the children does not. When their mother reveals the truth to the children, Megan is forced to consider that a person might have good reasons or at least a compelling motive for wanting to get away from their past and not be found by people who are looking for them.

Part of the issue related to that is that Megan and her brother Sandy were never consulted about whether or not they wanted to separate from their old life or to live the kind of lifestyle they’ve been living. Up to this point, they’ve taken for granted that they’ve had to move and lose contact with friends repeatedly because their mom needed to look for work and had trouble finding jobs as a single parent. When they realize that what’s been happening to their family isn’t normal, that their lives have been disrupted, and that their mother has lied to them about important pieces of their past and even their own identities, the children are understandably shocked and upset. Megan is angry with her mother for the position she’s put them in, and she is right that she needs answers.

Fortunately, things do work out for the best for the kids and their mother in the end. It is a relief that the mother has not actually committed a crime because of what she’s doing. She apologizes to the kids for not explaining things to them sooner, but she explains that, when the whole thing started, they were only little toddlers and couldn’t understand the seriousness of what was happening or what was at stake for them. When Megan learns the full truth, she does come to understand her mother’s motives, and she realizes that it has also changed the way she’s always felt about her father, whose life and death turn out to be very different from what she’s always assumed. Perhaps, if she had found out the truth earlier, when she was much younger, it would have been harder for her to take. Now that she and her brother are old enough to speak up for themselves and the situation they were running from has changed somewhat, things are likely to be much better for them. We’re not entirely sure at the end how things will be for their family or where they will be living, but it seems like their days of hiding and running are over.

The addition of Ben as a character not only gives Megan and Sandy an ally during their worries and evading the people searching for them, but he also provides a different perspective on their situation, in more ways than one. While Megan struggles to come to terms with her family’s secrets and the idea that both she and her family are not quite what she’s always believed they are, she also considers how her situation compares to Ben’s situation with his family.

Ben isn’t a happy kid. He’s been in trouble at different schools and behaves badly because he’s deeply troubled about his parents’ divorce and his mother’s remarriage to a man who isn’t thrilled to be his stepfather. Part of Ben’s troubles with his parents and stepfather are because he’s been acting out, and they don’t know how to deal with him, but deep down, he feels like his parents don’t love him. In fact, he admits that he’s been getting into trouble at school on purpose to get his parents’ attention. He had hoped that things would be better while he was staying with his father over the summer, but his father is a writer and absorbed in his work. He doesn’t seem to care much about what Ben does as long as he doesn’t disturb him while he’s writing. Ben feels like neither of his parents really loves him or wants him.

One thing that Megan has always been sure of is that her mother loves her, and even though her mother hasn’t told her the truth about everything before, Megan can tell that she still cares about her, takes time for her, and does things to ensure her safety. Megan’s family has their problems, but they are still a family. Even though Ben still has two parents and a stepfather, he doesn’t feel like he’s part of a family or that he can really rely on his parents. Megan’s realization that she feels very differently about her mother is part of what convinces her to listen to her mother and understand her side of the story.

Things start working out for Ben by the end of the story, too. He admits that he knows the way his dad acts is because he’s also upset about the divorce. He hadn’t really wanted to divorce his wife, but Ben’s mother wanted to marry someone else. He also hasn’t meant to neglect Ben. He’s just been preoccupied. Before the end of the story, he finishes the book he’s been working on and apologizes to Ben about being so busy. He’s not a bad father, and he and Ben usually get along better with each other. Now that he’s finished with his project and has more time to concentrate on Ben, Ben will get more attention. Ben also reassures Megan and Sandy, who are worried about how other people will look at them when the truth about their family’s past gets out, that he doesn’t see them any differently because of what he knows and that real friends will know and like them for who they are, not judge them for what their family members did.