Shadows on the Pond

by Alison Cragin Herzig

Jill, 14, is with her mother in their Vermont summer cabin while her father remains with the girl's sister in New York. To escape worries over the separation, Jill sticks close to her life-long friend Migan, also 14. The girls court danger, destroying the traps set by cruel Jim McCullough around a beaver pond, a sanctuary deep in the woods. A broken arm immobilizes Migan but Ryan, a boy Jill has seen at her school in the city, arrives (conveniently) to ally himself with her on the beavers' side.

Genres: Young Adult

244 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1985

Reviews

[Julie Taylor-Mestas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I was obsessed with as a pre-teen and as an adult couldn’t remember for years what it was called or who the author was. I finally found it in a search a few years ago and immediately ordered a copy to own. Read it aloud to Eli and definitely remember why I loved it so much. 🩷

[Laylam · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this quarter I read the book called Shadows on the Pond written by: Herzig, Alison Cragin. So it’s about best friends Jill and Migan and in the beginning they get kinda bad thunderstorms. When they go to migan house they go to this pound that they found together and it’s a secret place for them.Then in the middle of the story they are working on trying to stop Jeep, their aunt Karen’s boyfriend but she kinda doesn’t like him but she doesn’t want to say anything because he’s mean and controlling sometimes. But then Jill and Migan found out that he is trapping beavers and killing them. So they come up with a plan to get rid of the traps and where the pond is. So the night that they go they notice that someone has been there because there used to be a scarf that was tied up to the branch where all the traps are so they are puzzled.
Like how the author really makes the book interesting like when they go back to the pond and they see that the scarf that marks the pond and where all the traps are gone so they have to figure out who did it and why really quick. Also when MIgan and Jill have a special relationship like best friends like how they do almost everything together and they have their own special place since they were little and found it together.
I would recommend this book to middle schoolers because of the reading level and because if you love the best friend relationship type of books and kinda like adventure then i think you would like this book. It also is an interesting book. I really enjoyed this book. I think you would too. I also don’t think the book was hard at all, neither confusing it was just the right type of book for me. I think it was in the middle of how hard or easy it was to read. I thought the ending was pretty good overall. It was kinda predictable, not really though. The connection I have with this book is probably that I have a group of friends. When we always go outside to the nature center we always go to the same spot.

[Partridge Public]

Herzig, Alison C.