Add this to the growing shelf of books about young Wonder Woman. This is a prose novel rather than a graphic novel, which was a fun change. The general plot - a boy breeches the boundaries of Themyscira and Diana is pulled away from her home to fix a problem - isn't unique, but the execution is well done. I liked Diana's friendship with Sakina and the team up of the girls when they leave the island to fight the villain. The story is highly suspenseful, with roadblock after roadblock building until the final battle. It had a Rick Riordan sort of feel to the story with the mythology of the gods referenced here and there and the seemingly invincible foe. There were two chapters to tease the next book in the back of my review copy and they were a tease for sure. I can't wait to get that next story and see what happens for Diana and her friends.

Thank you NetGalley, Aisha Saeed, and Random House Children for allowing me to read this book.

What if I told you that the world was in danger, and it was up to a master potions maker, a scholar, and a warrior to save it? How about if I told you that those three were just kids? That is what happens in Diana and the Island of No Return.

This book is a fun Mid-grade story that follows Wonder Woman herself, well, more like Wonder Girl, as Diana is still a kid. She and her friend Sakina find a mysterious boy hiding on the island. He pleads for their help and they agree. This follows the three kids and their adventures in learning to trust each other and themselves and saving the lives of those they love in the process.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It was a fun, fast paced adventure that I think kids and adults alike would enjoy. We all know who Wonder Woman is, but this story gives us a glimpse of what she was like before she donned the boots and lasso. It was a story of trust, friendship, and finding your inner strength.

This book was definitely action packed and so there was never a lull in the story. The one thing that I did notice was a times the author was a bit redundant. The same information that I had just read, would be said again a few sentences later. This could be to remind the intended audience, of 8-12 year olds what was going on.

All in all, I really enjoyed this story and I can't wait to follow Diana in her next adventure.
#NetGalley #DianaandtheIslandofNoReturn

Diana lives on the Themyscira. The island is a safe place full of warrior women. A festival is coming full of women from distant lands. The Amazon's protect the passage to the underworld.Sakina,Diana's friend,can talk to animals. I didn't think the story was too cutesy. I love wonder woman and that it was different from the movie. I loved Diana's adventure with Sakina and Augustus.

Twelve-year-old Diana dreams of being trained as an Amazon warrior, but her mother tells her she is too young. When a strange boy appears on the shores of their island and the woman of the island fall into a potion-induced sleep, Diana will have to try to save both her own people and those on the boy’s island.

This book is fast paced and beautifully written. I’m eager to share it with my sixth graders because I’m always telling them that age doesn’t determine who can be a hero. I also love that this book reminds readers that being brave doesn’t mean someone is fearless, it means doing something in spite of being afraid.

Thank you to Random House for sharing an eARC with #BookAllies in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so fun! Diana and the Island of No Return was a fast-paced, action-packed story that had me hooked in the short time it took to read it. I really enjoyed reading about Diana before she became Wonder Woman. Essentially, this book is about how Diana and her friends save the people of a neighboring island from a demon, who has come to capture her. With a bit of luck and a lot of wits and courage, the trio manages to save the day despite the odds.

This was really immersive and wonderful to read, and despite the book seeming almost repetitive at times, I loved the way Aisha Saeed portrayed young Diana, with her keen sense of justice and her do-what-must-be-done attitude. Her friendships with Sakina and Augustus only added to the story, as they faced the demon and the challenges that come with ensuring his defeat.

I truly delighted in reading this book, and I would definitely recommend it to others who enjoy reading either middle-grade adventure/fantasy books, or about strong female leads.

this was such a good book, I really felt that it worked as a novel everyone could read. Diana felt like she was true to her character and I really enjoyed reading this book and hope there is more from the author.

This was a wonderful book, it was fun to read about a young Diana and seeing how she wanted to train and be a warrior like her mother and all the other women on the Island. 

'You are Stronger than you Realize'

Diana and the Island of No Return by Aisha Saeed is a fast paced, action packed adventure. Diana has never left her home Themyscira before, and she longs to find her purpose

For fans of adventures similar to Percy Jackson and the Olympians comes a new series for young readers about the early years of Diana (Wonder Woman). Twelve year old Diana has not yet gotten the chance to train as a warrior to protect her island of Themyscira. Diana's best friend Princess Sakina arrives at the island to celebrate in a big festival adding to Diana's worries about ever being trained. During the festival a boy is discovered by Diana and together the three of them embark on an adventure to help save the boy's island from a terrible demon. This book was a delightful introduction to a young Diana and I look forward to reading the next installment!

Actual Rating - 3.5 Stars

This is the first book of a series (I thought it was a standalone until I saw the book 2 sneak peek at the end!) with young Diana being the awesome warrior hero she is!

It was a fast fun read that I read in one sitting, with LOTS of action throughout the book! The main characters are Diana, her best friend Sakina and a mysterious boy, Augustus. While they all had their moments, I wish I could have known more about them so I could feel connected.

Diana is brave and kind and really quite awesome but I wanted to know more about her life than these adjectives and I also wanted more answers about Diana from Hippolyta. I'll definitely be picking up the sequel to get those answers!

I liked the friendship between Diana and Sakina. Even when one messes up, the other doesn't dramatically get super mad at them like I've seen in a lot of books. Instead they talk it out and try to understand each other. YAY for such healthy friendships.

Augustus is a sweet bean and I hope we have more of him in the sequel too! Would like to see more of our potion making, chariot building boy!

The plot started very soon and kept me entertained! While I very much enjoyed the fast paced plot, I wish we had more answers to some of the plot based questions. I believe there will be answers in the sequel, but within this book they felt like deus ex machina without the explanations.

The writing is simple and fluid and I'd definitely recommend it for younger readers. They'd have so much fun and the language is easy to understand and beautiful.

Diana lives on an island exclusively for warrior women, yet her mother won't let her train to fight herself. She is forced to take things into her own hands with her friends to save the island against unimaginable evils.

A perfect middle grade fantasy - the length lends it's hand to readability for kids but does not limit the amount of action!

Diana gets down on herself often because her mother, the Queen, will not allow her to train to be a warrior on their island of Themyscira. Only women live on this island and their annual festival is just about to start. Prior to this festival the Amazons and many other strong and empowering women are getting ready. Diana's best friend Sakina is sailing in just in time for it to begin. The two are beyond excited to be together again, but when Diana travels off to go check in on her wolf, Bitini, she spots a boy. A boy on their island where only women are allowed... Soon Diana and Sakina learn that this boy must return Diana to his small island of Sáz to save his people before a demon destroys everything. This demon is beyond powerful, and he is made of vapor so taking him down is not going to be as easy as the three of them thought!

This book is more than just an adventure, it leaves you wanting to know what happens next without realizing what time it is. It was definitely a page-turner and I am sure students will love the length of it too. I loved the end of the story and the preview of the next book in this new series. I am looking forward to it!

You are Stronger than you Realize
Diana and the Island of No Return by Aisha Saeed is a fast paced, action packed adventure. Diana has never left her home Themyscira before, and she longs to find her purpose when her mother refuses to let her learn how to fight. When a boy comes desperate for help, Diana and her friend Sakina, must find a way to protect their family. Diana has to learn how to use her unique talents to solve almost impossible problems. Her greatest strengths are her belief in her friends, determination in the face of failure, and courage despite being afraid. I also enjoyed the strong themes of teamwork, and the importance of telling the truth. Diana is at her best in this book, as she shows the numerous reasons why she is such an iconic, and well-loved character. It is good to see more books with great female characters, who are celebrated for being themselves. This book is appropriate for young readers 8 - 12 Years, and has an accessible reading style, and length.

I received a copy of Diana and the Island of No Return from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a fun book, seriously I loved it! I ave never read a kid's book about some of my favorite superheroes but now I definitely want to check out more now.

I loved the whole story and seeing such a different take on one of my favorite superheroes was just a blast to read and I really wish they had books like this when I was a kid! The plot is fun and easy to follow and I really think just about anyone can pick this up and enjoy it,

Sometimes you pick up a book and immediately wish you could wrap it up and send it back in time to your younger self. That's how I feel about Diana and the Island of No Return. When I was in elementary school I was super into the Justice League cartoon that aired on cartoon network. Wonder Woman was my favorite character because she was so strong and confident. I was a pretty shy kid but I wanted to grow up to be just like Diana. Books were the one place where I felt truly confident, so to have a book about a young Diana who is still learning how to be a hero would have meant everything to me. It still meant a whole lot to grown-up me, who has turned to the Wonder Woman character a lot over the years.

Diana and the Island of No Return is fun, fast-paced, and has everything I love in a middle-grade story: cool magic, awesome animal sidekicks, and girls learning how to be strong in the face of adversity. It's a great introduction to Diana's character but has enough little references to Wonder Woman lore (like a glass chariot homage to her invisible plane) that readers who are already familiar with the character will still enjoy this new origin story. I loved the friendship element of this story, something that I haven't really seen from previous iterations of the character. And I really want to go to Themescyra during a festival of all the brightest female minds in the world and eat lemon cake.

Diana and the Island of No Return by Aisha Saeed was a great book! I loved how the setting really brought me into the story and the friendship themes were cute. In the book, Twelve-year-old Princess Diana, her mother, and the rest of the Amazons are getting ready for their annual festival, and Diana's excited, but she wishes she was allowed to train. Nevertheless, the festival kicks off and Diana and her best friend Sakina are having fun when they discover a boy on the island. Knowing that boys aren't allowed on Themyscira, Diana knows something's wrong. When the boy tells her that there's danger, she knows she has to do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe. I really enjoyed the story and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series! The beginning and the end were the best parts of this book and I'd give it 4.4 stars out of 5. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Kids for providing the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

What a great Wonder Woman story! I love origin stories and this one was no exception. Diana and Sakina's adventure on Sas was just the right amount of harrowing for middle-grade readers. I love the setup for the next book--I can't wait for more!

Hurray for Wonder Woman and her hero's heart. In this new title from Aisha Saeed, Diana and her friend Sakina travel by chariot to another island to save Themiscyra. Included in their rescue party is a boy named Augustus who is also trying to save his island of Saz from a demon. The demon wants Diana, but the three are determined to thwart his efforts to bring Diana to an unidentified "He." There are elements of the Hunger Games and Percy Jackson woven in adding interesting dimensions to this new young Diana title. My download also included a preview of the next title in the series --"Diana and the Underworld Odyssey." Looking forward to the next installment in The Wonder Woman Adventures!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

All hail the middle grade superhero novels! We are - hopefully - getting our long-awaited Wonder Woman 1984 movie this October, so TALK THIS UP. Our tweens and teens have Tempest Tossed, a phenomenal Wonder Woman original graphic novel; middle graders and tweens now have Diana and the Island of No Return, by Aisha Saeed. Here, Diana is a tween herself, a princess forbidden to learn to fight, despite living on an island of warrior women. She's hoping to persuade her mother, Queen Hippolyta, this year... maybe during the festivities, when her best friend, Princess Sakina arrives, they can plan an approach? Before the festivities begin, Diana discovers a stowaway - a BOY - on Sakina's mother's ship, and learns that the entire island of Themyscira has been put under a sleeping spell. Diana and Sakina, the only two awake on the island, must travel with this boy to his island, where a demon lies in wait, wanting to capture Diana. 

This is the first in a Wonder Woman trilogy, and Aisha Saeed wastes no time getting to the action. Diana and Sakina's friendship is well-written and realistic; she creates larger-than-life figures and makes them very human; the girls are giggly best friends who plan to sleep in the same room so they can stay up all night, and yet also ready, at a moment's notice, to go on a dangerous mission to fight a demon and free their mothers. It all comes together beautifully, with great world-building, pacing, and storytelling. I can't wait for the next book.

This Wonder Woman story of Princess Diana as a young girl is not noteworthy because of its groundbreaking storytelling, but more for the fact that the series and story is by a Pakistani-American Muslim author.  I am not sure how authors are assigned or chosen to  write these reimagined character series, but I think it is a great compliment to her writing and a great mainstream representation of diversity that we should celebrate.  Even more exciting is the subtle addition of Diana's best friend, Princess Sakina, daughter of Queen Khadijah to the story, and that while they are citizens of fictitious world of Greek gods, they seem to spout Islamic wisdom on occasion, and be equally strong and important to the adventure at hand.  The book is meant for middle grades and at 288 pages is a fun light read for girls and boys of all ages.

SYNOPSIS:

Young Diana is anxiously waiting for the start of the yearly Chara Festival, when strong women from all over the world come to her island home of Themyscira to celebrate their different cultures and strengths.  Most of all Diana is waiting to spend the week with her best friend Sakina.  Frustrated that her mother is not allowing her to train with the other Amazonian women, Sakina listens to her and they hope to persuade Queen Hippolyta that this is the year.  

As the women are arriving and gathering in the palace, Diana discovers a boy near the ships, Augustus.  Boys are not allowed on Themyscira.  There is no exception, but when all the women in the palace are drugged to sleep, her and Sakina are forced to trust him to try and save their loved ones.

Augustus confesses that a demon has hypnotized everyone on his island home, and that he was told to break the spell he needed to bring Princess Diana to the demon.  With no options and determined to prove her self, Diana and Sakina and her trusty bird fly off on a chariot to another world.

With tests around every corner, literally, the trio has to work together, to stay alive, gather the ingredients to make a potion to save the people on both islands, and push themselves to be brave.

WHY I LIKE IT:

So the story is ok, it is fun, I'm sure most kids that like superheroes and even many that don't will enjoy the quick paced plot of the story.  There are definitely little nuggets of inspiration and motivation that make the book a positive influence on the reader.  The trio discuss bravery and how being scared doesn't make you less brave, they encourage one another to push themselves and they forgive each other when they make mistakes.

 Sakina and her people are scholars and on occasion says deep thoughts.  She says at one point, "My mother always says we are supposed to enjoin the right and forbid the wrong." Which is a general principal, but the word choice sounds a lot like Surah 3 verse 110 "enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong," 

FLAGS:

There is talk of Zeus and the other gods.  There is lying.

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

I probably wouldn't do this as a book club book, but I would definitely encourage kids to read it.  I think muslim kids will get a kick out of seeing the names Sakina and Khadijah in the book and feel like its a bit of a shoutout, which I think is awesome.  It seems like it is book one in a three part series, so I hope to have my kids read them all and make sure the 3rd-5th grade teachers at their school have them as well.

This is a story of Diana as a young girl. She is wishing to be trained but her mother is resisting. When women and girls from other islands come to her home for a festival Diana is very excited, especially because she will see her best friend. But when a boy shows up things get weird. First, he shouldn't be there. Then everyone except Diana and her friend are impacted by a potion that puts them all to sleep. Augustus knows he can make a cure but they have to go back to his island where a demon has the whole island hypnotized and he is waiting to capture Diana.
There was some good action here and readers might enjoy it just for that. For those familiar with Diana's story the ill recognize some names and objects.