Blackwell's Island

by Serena Graff

New York City, 1914. Eleven-year-old Alex and his sister, Anna, are trying to make the most of life without their mother, who has recently disappeared. They’re doing a pretty good job of it until Alex finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and is sent to the juvenile work camp on Blackwell’s Island, a place full of lunatics, incurables, and—even though Alex doesn’t believe in them—ghosts.

On Blackwell’s Alex becomes fast friends with Francis, a skinny kid who seems to know everything, and Will, a Blackwell’s veteran who has already developed the thick skin necessary for survival. Together, they face their biggest fears and plot their escape. But can Alex stand up to Coldbuddy, the man responsible for all the evil on Blackwell’s, and still leave the island with his life?

Blackwell’s Island is a scary, edge-of-your-seat tale—definitely not a place to go after dark.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Philip Grace]

A gleefully grim YA novel about turn-of-the-century New York: think "Sweeney Todd" for tweens. However, if you are embracing the squalor and danger of the setting, the macabre and supernormal, why then backpedal to a saccharine ending?
Far more compelling than the novel-as-written is the historical reality of Blackwell's Island, which I would be fascinated to learn more about. How about 10 Days in a Madhouse, published in 1887 by Nellie Bly who went undercover into the asylum there?

[AnnaBR · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alright so typically within my own personal lists I'd probably give this three stars on a five scale system, 3.7 on a decimal one. But as it has so few reviews and is really a quite compelling read I'm bumping it to four stars for the community side of reviews.