First Class (Isle of Misfits Series #1)

by Jamie Mae, Freya Hartas (Illustrator)

Overview

In the first book of the Isle of Misfits series, a gargoyle that can't sit still at his post is invited to live on an island full of other restless magical creatures!

Gibbon is a gargoyle who has been unable to sit still for hundreds of years. One day, he leaves his post from the castle he was meant to be guarding, and a person sees Gibbon, he panics and runs away. As Gibbon is sadly walking back, he meets three gargoyles who bring him to an island filled with other legendary creatures. There, he goes to a special academy that will train him to go on missions to protect all sorts of mythical creatures who are in trouble.

Excited to go and happy that he won't be lonely anymore, Gibbon is also nervous to go some place where he doesn't know anyone. Will he be able to make friends in this new place? Find out in this new and exciting creature-filled series, complete with a hilarious cast of characters such as a clumsy dragon, an ill-tempered fairy, a griffin with poor flying skills, and a yeti with a manbun!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781499808230
Publisher:	little bee books
Publication date:	03/05/2019
Series:	Isle of Misfits Series , #1
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
File size:	42 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	6 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jamie Mae is a children's book author living in Brooklyn with her fluffy dog, Boo. Before calling New York home, she lived in Quebec, Australia, and France. She loves learning about monsters, mysteries, and mythologies from all around the globe.

Freya Hartas is a UK-based illustrator specializing in children's books. She lives in the vibrant city of Bristol and works from her cozy, cluttered desk. Freya loves to conjure up humorous characters, animals, and monsters and to create fantastical worlds and places for them to inhabit and get lost in.

Editorial Reviews

2018-10-28

A gargoyle with a broken horn finds both work and a team at a secret school for mythological creatures.

Though properly taught to protect buildings and their residents (gargoyles' function as rainspouts go unmentioned), Gibbon has been driven by boredom into dropping snowballs onto passers-by and like pranks. Suddenly, though, he's whisked off to the Isle of Misfits, where the young and the restless are gathered to learn how to be better adjusted ("proper monsters") and to appreciate the value of teamwork. It's a whole new world for him, and he quickly bonds with four fellow students—a fairy with anger issues, a big and clumsy dragon, a yeti dude with a man bun, and a gentle griffin who can't get the knack of flying. Initially, monkeylike Gibbon messes up an obstacle relay race by trying to take all the legs himself, but then at a later one he works with rather than against his friends to earn second place…or, as it turns out, first, because their malign, bullying competitors ("a green troll, a hairy gremlin, a slimy ghoul, and a baba yaga") cheated. The prize is to skip class for a "mission" (see next episode). With rare exception, everyone in both the narrative and Hartas' flurries of small sketched scenes seems to belong to a different species; fairy Fiona is depicted with brown skin. Despite their outward forms they're all standard-issue kid types, if not stereotypes, and as unvarnished as the heavy-handed values education: "You need to learn how to work with your team, Gibbon. Your slacking off only makes it harder for the rest of us."

A particularly rough-hewn addition to the "magic school" shelf, with very little magic in sight. (Fantasy. 8-10)

Kirkus Reviews