The illustrations look great, but there's quite a lot of text and it's done in a smaller type face, which means it doesn't quite work as a picture book, which seems to be the intended format. It works well as a children's book for older readers that happens to have very good illustrations. A nice read.

The illustrations look great, but there's quite a lot of text and it's done in a smaller type face, which means it doesn't quite work as a picture book, which seems to be the intended format. It works well as a children's book for older readers that happens to have very good illustrations, which would put it in a different age range of reader.

The Island Adventures of Paul Stedman
The Rose Island Lighthouse Series
by Lynne Heinzmann

This book is the second in the engaging, well-researched Rose Island Lighthouse series for young people by Lynne Heinzmann. It is the tale of the real-life young boy noted in the title who spends a year living and working at the Rose Island, Rhode Island lighthouse with his lightkeeper grandfather during the Great Depression. The book is written in an unusual style, blending the biographical accounting of this part of Paul Stedman’s life with enough historical fiction to carry the story line and then alternating his story with explanations of the history of the area and the time period. It is notable that while technology has advanced, the concerns and emotions the boy experiences are as relevant today as they were then, two or three generations ago.
Although this book is a very suitable read for a young person, sharing this book promotes opportunity for potential conversations around many diverse topics, including causes and outcomes of the Great Depression and World Wars I and II, intergenerational similarities and differences, drivers and consequences of technological change and personal values.
I look forward to the next installment in this engrossing series!