I can’t believe it’s over two years since I reviewed Roderick O’Grady’s children’s book Bigfoot Mountain in a post you’ll find here. My enormous thanks go to Rod for sending me a copy of the sequel Bigfoot Island. I’m delighted to share my review today.

Published by Firefly on 20th April 2023, Bigfoot Island is available for purchase in all the usual places including directly from the publisher here.

Bigfoot Island

When Minnie spots a white boat bringing strangers to the cove below her cabin, she fears the hard-won peace of her tiny community at the foot of Bigfoot Mountain will be shattered. Kaayii too has to deal with an intruder on the mountain and, injured, needs to reach his family across the water. The two inhabit separate worlds but must find a way to work together to avoid disaster and protect the people and places they hold dear.

My Review of Bigfoot Island

Minnie’s about to have another Sasquatch adventure.

Having loved Bigfoot Mountain, I knew I’d be in for a treat with the sequel Bigfoot Island, but I hadn’t fully appreciated how seamlessly Roderick O’Grady would blend in key aspects of the first book to ensure full understanding, without slowing this narrative at all. Bigfoot Island can easily be enjoyed as a stand alone story, but it’s even better if you’ve read Bigfoot Mountain first. 

There’s an exciting and fast paced plot that encompasses peril, friendship and adventure. I think it’s inspired to have Kaayii’s version of events as well as the humans’ as it illustrates so clearly how perceptions and reasons for behaviour might not be what we believe, thereby teaching tolerance and understanding. 

Billy is a complete star. He’s kind, funny and just dim enough to make him the perfect best friend for Minnie. However, it is Minnie who is so wonderful because she’s brave, principled and caring, making her both attractive to young readers and a brilliant role model. She thinks things through before she acts so that she illustrates the perfect balance of head and heart in her decisions and behaviour. It’s so inclusive that her family unit with Dan is unconventional and I love the idea that her grief for her mother is not ignored. When this is linked to Grey’s behaviour, there’s a real poignancy to the story that is incredibly affecting.

With the environment at the heart of Bigfoot Island, including cohabitation between species, the natural world, weather, tides, flora and fauna, and so on, some of Roderick O’Grady’s descriptions are so beautiful, placing young readers and adults alike right at the heart of the action with Minnie and Kaayii. There’s a really visual quality to the story with the other senses vividly portrayed too.

Bigfoot Island is lovely. It is a modern parable of family, home, safety, refugees, outsiders and the need to live in balance with nature for the benefit of us all. It’s also a thoroughly entertaining narrative, imbued with emotion, that younger readers can simply enjoy in its own right. I thoroughly recommend it. 

About Roderick O’Grady

After embarking on an acting career in London, Roderick O’Grady moved to New York in the nineties. After some success off Broadway and in the US soap ‘As the World Turns’ he returned home with a wife and two children. His stage play, ‘A Foolish Fancy, How Not to get Ahead in the Theatre’ was a Time Out Critics Choice on the London Fringe. Bigfoot Mountain was his first novel.

You can follow Rod on Twitter @RoderickOGrady1. You’ll also find him on Instagram and can visit his website for further information.