Why a Booktrail?
2000s: A mother is at pains to help her six year old daughter, haunted by a ghostly memory…
Keep Me Safe
What you need to know before your trail
When Anna’s partner walks away from their relationship, she is devastated but it’s Ava, her six year old girl who takes it hardest of all and stops talking or making any sound at all for three days. When she does speak, her words are troubling. Ava wants to go home. To a place called Seal. To her other mother.
Anna is desperate to help her daughter and to find the island of Seal and take Ava there. She hopes it will unlock her daughter’s memories. But could it also unlock a whole lot more….
Travel Guide
Seal Island (fictional)
An island in the Hebrides where Ava, six years old, has memories of despite never having been there. She says her mother took her – although not her mother Anna in the story, her other ‘mother’. children have imaginary friends but imaginary mothers? Then she describes the island she has never seen:
“My mum took me to the beach and there were puddles in the sand, and she said they were like tiny seas. ”
At school, Anna discovers that Ava has written stories of the island and drawn it in her book:
And there was a picture of the sea, blue and grey, taking up two whole pages. In the corner, a beach with two figures, One was definitely Ava, with her long black hair in a braid; the other was a tall blonde woman….” Anna looks closely and sees that she’s drawn a sign which says “Seal”
It’s a picture she draws every day and with the same two figures explains her teacher. There are only two settlements on this island – Roan and Ollaberry – there is infact an Ollaberry on Shetland!
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Keep Me Safe (Seal Island 1)
Author/Guide: Daniela Sacerdoti Destination: Hebrides (Fictional Seal Island) Departure Time: 2000s
Back to ResultsWhere Next?
