Lina #1

Title: Weather's Here, Wish You Were Great (Second book from the Castaways triology)

Author: Sandy Beech

Pages: 186

Genre: Fiction

Copyright: January 2006

The main characters in the book are Dani McFeeney, her little brother Kenny, Josh Gallagher, and Angela Barnes.

Dani McFeeney is a sixth grader from Tweedale Middle School whose life had radically changed since she accepted to go on a trip on a small tropical island. Kenny is her little brother who is always bugging her. Angela or "Evil Angela" - the way that Dani likes to call her, is her "mortal enemy" since they have known each other. And the things between them seem to become worse because they both are falling for the same guy - Josh Gallagher - the symathetic seventh grader.

The story is developing on a small island - part of the Esparcir Islands near the equator. Since the students have to stay on it, waiting for, somebody to come and rescue them, they plan to make something fun.

Ten students from Tweedale Middle School had came on a trip to clean up the trash from the Esarcir Islands. Since they understood that the other teacher that organized the trip had gone to the main land with a sick kid and didn't know where the group was, they realized that they were traped on this small island for an unknown time. Now the students are thinking what to spend time on apart from surviving. Angela gives the idea to make a dance party. Although the idea seems absurd, all of the students agree exept for Dani. She knows that Angela is doing this only to draw Josh's attention on herself. With big unwillingess Dani is helping to clean and decorate the island for the dance. She notices that Angela is doing almost nothing, and leaves all the dirty work for the others. On the night of the dance all the teenagers are preparing thoroughly, even though they don't have so much make-up and clothes. The party is going well, and everybody seems to enjoy it, but in the middle of it a hurricane comes and ruins everything. The kids hide into a cave, watching the storm. Suddenly somebody notices that Kenny is missing. Dani starts to feel a lot of guilt and dread. She knows that if she gets home, her parents would punish her forever. And when she imagines her brother traped somewhere, she feels that her heart hearts. When she decides to go out and look for him, Josh stands up and says that she will go with her. They run through the rain, looking in many caves, screaming Kenny's name, but they cannot find him. Suddenly Dani remembers that her brother had been talking for some kind of an insect zoo on the top of the mountain. Josh and she climb bravely up the rocks, hoping that Kenny is save. When they reach the top of the mountain, they hear a little voice from somewhere. Soon they find out that Kenny is on the bottom on a big cave and cannot climb up. Dani manages to grab his hand and pull him up. The tree of them decide to hide in another cave till the storm pass by. When the morning comes, they return to the others' cave. But before they enter in it, Josh tells Dani that she had acted very bravely and smartly while she was rescuing her brother and that he thinks that she is very cool. After they agree to keep this conversation a secret, they join the group to clean the island, still waiting for the rescue to come.