Every once in awhile a children's book comes along that everyone should read. Finn's Island is one of those books. It is a simple story of a young boy growing up with a fantasy of another place, a deserted Hebridean Island.

Finn cares little for the reality of his life on a remote farm with his disinterested father and grandmother, preferring to live in a fantasy world based on his grandfather's recollections of a remote island. The arrival of Douglas, an agricultural student at the farm, however, changes all of their lives, but especially Finn's when he is invited to visit the island of his dreams and finds out things aren't quite as he had imagined.

Finn's story is about growing up and becoming aware of the environment in which one lives. On his visit to the island he experiences one part of that new awareness. When finally he gets to his grandfather' island he decides to locate where his Grandfather was raised.

"'Let's go to Grandpa's cottage now,' he said to Chris, and with his friend plodding patiently beside him, he walked down through the old barley field, still spiked randomly by fragile, weedy stalks, descendants of seed the Islanders had planted. Ahead of them was the desolate huddle of ruined dwellings, unthatched and stripped to the bone by the weather. To Finn, this was the most important moment of his visit, and he thought how happy Grandpa would be to know that he was here.

'Do you know which one it is?' Chris asked.

Finn nodded. 'The last one in the row nearest the jetty, end-on to the sea,' he said.

They found it without difficulty. The village was very small. Finn stood for a moment outside, remembering it as he knew it had once been. He visualised the fire of peat burning on the hearthstone in the middle of the floor, the low chairs and the dresser made of driftwood by his great-great-grandfather, the precious flower -patterned china brought by his great-grandmother from Islay, when she came to Hirsay as a bride. That china was now in the kitchen at Corumbeg, as was the dark-cased pendulum clock which had ticked away the lives of those who had lived within these tumbled walls. Then Finn stepped reverently over the doorless threshold. He stopped so suddenly that Chris crashed into his back. They both stood silent for a moment, then Finn heard Chris swear and his own voice pleading, 'Oh, no. Please, not this.' Horror swept over him like sickness.

The mess in the cottage was appalling. People had been having a party, and the whole interior was awash with the filth and rubbish they had left behind. Beer cans, broken whisky bottles, eggshells and rusting tins were strewn everywhere. Food scraps had doubtless been eaten by birds, but charred chicken carcases lay on top of the dead embers of a fire. Soiled plastic bags had been blown to the back of the room, and caught between the rough stones. There they hung raggedly, like dismal flags.

Finn stood trembling, without will. It was Chris who acted.

'We'll clear it up,' he told Finn. 'Mum brought a roll of plastic sacks for rubbish. I saw them in a box when she unpacked.'

Now Chris was the leader, and Finn was too stunned to do anything but follow him. Walloped by the wind, they ran back to the school, where Chris found the roll of sacks, and detached four. He gave two to Finn, and they hurried back to the cottage. In silence, the two boys spent the next half-hour picking up every piece of rubbish, until Grandpa's cottage was clean and decent again. Finn was grateful to Chris, and thanked him warmly, but nothing could take away the painful feeling that the person he loved best had been cruelly dishonoured.

As the boys dragged the sacks back to the school, they met Douglas coming to look for them. He saw their faces, and understood without questioning. Taking two of the sacks, he said, 'I'm afraid they've been out along the rocks, too. Spraypaint, letters three feet high. Football slogans, and worse.

Finn felt that he couldn't stand much more.

'Can we get it off' he asked, near to tears.

Douglas put a sympathetic arm round his shoulders.

'I'm afraid not,' he said. 'We'll have to let the sea do the job for us, in its own time.' He shook his head, as he were trying to rid himself of something horrible that had touched him. 'Even here,' he added helplessly 'If only one could understand why.'

That realization leads Finn into new growth that makes this a touching and exciting novel.

This hard back book is available from the Scottish Radiance Book Shelf for $20.00 including postage and handling. You can purchase it on our order page.