This story has stuck with me ever since I first read it as a child and, rereading it as an adult, it's easy to see why. There's something so striking about a child protagonist who is left to survive alone on an island that echoes with the whispers of everyone she has lost. Her anger, loneliness, grief, and even her eventual happiness are all so beautifully written. I smiled, I cried, and I held my breath in suspense from beginning to end. For a child who was fascinated by what I could learn from historical fiction, this book fueled my imagination and it still brought me back to that place all these years later.