Bonnie J. Doerr

Island Sting by Bonnie J Doerr is a tween novel set in the Florida Keys. Kenzie has moved down there with her mother, after her parents have divorced. She's a New York City girl and the wilds of a small Florida island leave her feeling out of sorts and out of place.

While exploring her new home, Kenzie sees what she thinks is a dog in the canal. In trying to save it, she falls in and discovers, it's not a dog, but a deer. When she and the deer are rescued down stream, Kenzie is introduced to an on-going poaching problem.

Kenzie in her desire to help the deer she rescued, comes out of her shell. She makes friends and tracks down the truth behind rumors. As she doesn't know anyone on the island, she can see the facts and the rumors with fresh eyes. That helps her piece together the clues and put a stop to the poaching.

For fans of Carl Hiaasen's tween books: Flush, Hoot, Scat, and Chomp (review coming) will find familiar territory in Island Sting. Along with Kenzie, readers will learn about the plight of the endangered Key deer. The endnotes include more information about the deer including links to pertinent websites.… (meer)

Island Sting by Bonnie J Doerr was a book that I was really excited about when I first heard about it last year. Its setting, the Florida Keys, is a place where I want to spend more time in...I have visited once but that was just for a few hours during a trip to Florida a few years back. So not only is it a place that I want to know more of its an eco-based mystery....which means science and environmental facts. Island Sting is told from the point of view of Kenzie - who just moved to the Keys with her mom from New York. Her first day there she falls into a canal and helps to save one of the Key Deer and somehow gets involved in a mystery of someone who is killing the deer for sport.

I think I expected more from Island Sting then I got. I expected a mystery something that I'd have to try and figure out but there was no real mystery. Everything was handed to reader so it was very unfulfilling. I don't know maybe I just read too many mysteries and so for me this one was no challenge. I also found the writing to be more middle grade in nature than young adult even though all the teens were 16 or so. Although if it wasn't for the occasional reference to driving a car or high school I'd swear they were more 12 than 16. There were several times I felt like I was being talked down to as things were being explained to Kenzie. For as new girl on the island, the city chick, there was much about island life that she was clueless about.

I also had some issues with the dialogue. It just came across as stilted and didn't always ring true for a teen voice. The description to dialogue transitions didn't always work for me either. There just seemed to be a bunch of words that were edited out so there were these random jumps in events. The character of Angelo also annoyed me. His mood swings were just out of control and I just didn't see anything about him to like. So it was hard to believe that Kenzie was so head over heels for him....especially in the short amount of time in which this book takes place.

For me, this book suffered from having too high expectations. I think if I'd expected less I would have enjoyed it more. Perhaps if it were billed more as middle grade that too would have helped me enjoy it more as then the juvenile language of the book would have had more of a place. I've been reading a lot of YA over the last few years and I know that a more complex writing style and story can really thrive. There will be at least two more books involving Kenzie Ryan and I think that I will check out the next one before completely abandoning her story. Kenzie has potential and perhaps Island Sting just suffered a bit from being a debut book and that with time the writing and the crafting of a mystery will grow and become more of what I like to see when reading a mystery. Until then this is a book that I can only recommend to the younger reader.… (meer)

Kenzie has only been in the Keys a few hours when she finds herself in a canal rescuing what turns out to be a deer. Her rescuer turns out to be the good looking Angelo. She learns that someone is killing the key deer, an endangered species that live in the Florida Keys. She and her new friends set out to clean up the environment and secretly try to find the poacher responsible for the butchered deer. This book reminded me of Carl Hiaasen's "Hoot" and "Flush". I was please to read the first chapter of the next book at the end of this one. This is a book to be placed on my shelf. Since we just finished reading Flush as a class I am sure this one will be quickly picked up.… (meer)