Island Boy

Island Boy is a 1988 book by Barbara Cooney. It tells the story of a boy named Matthias, who travels around the world but eventually returns to his home on Addison, Maine#Islands Within [the Town of Addison|Tibbetts Island] in Maine. Cooney described it as being, with Miss Rumphius and Hattie and [the Wild Waves], the closest books she has written to her heart; it was her "hymn to Maine".

Reception

The book was praised by Publishers Weekly for its "wide, sweeping seascapes that contrast with the velvety, close-up interiors." PW added that the book "is an ode to simple acts of daily living. Not only one family's tale, this is also a cherishable glimpse of a bygone time."
It received a Boston Globe–Horn [Book Award].