• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Patricia Hruby Powell

Author, Storyteller, Dancer

  • Facebook
  • Goodreads
  • Amazon
  • Bluesky
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Books
    • Lift As You Climb: The Story of Ella Baker
    • Struttin’ with Some Barbecue
    • Loving vs. Virginia
    • Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker
    • Frog Brings Rain
    • Zinnia: How the Corn Was Saved
    • Blossom Tales: Flower Stories of Many Folk
  • Author Visits/Keynotes
  • Dance
  • One Woman Play
  • About
  • Blog
    • All Blog Entries
    • Book Reviews
    • Book News
    • Writing Tips
    • New post notifications
  • Schedule
  • Contact Me

“Where the World Ends” by Geraldine McCaughrean

May 24, 2020 By Patricia Hruby Powell Leave a Comment

Nine boys (from nine to fifteen years old) and three men are dropped off at the nearly vertical Warrior Stac—one of the tiny rock islands of the St. Kilda Archipelago in the far northwest of Scotland. The year is 1727. Every summer a group of boys goes “fowling” to collect gannets, puffins, petrels and other birds for the meat, eggs, feathers, bones and oil to pay as rent to the owner of their island, Hirta. The amazing Geraldine McCaughrean spins her tale from a true event in “Where the World Ends” (Flat Iron 2017).

After a couple months the Hirta boat will fetch the men and boys home, with their haul of dead birds. But the boat doesn’t arrive. Day after day they wait.

Wise and humble Quill, one of the older boys, has become a natural leader. He comforts the younger boys with stories—although Quill doesn’t understand why they look up to him. He also fantasizes about the young woman, Murdina, who had visited Hirta last year from the mainland.

One of the men, who insists upon being called Colonel Cane, the grave digger in their small community on Hirta, names himself the Minister of the boys. He tells the boys the world has ended and their people have been taken by angels to Heaven and forgotten those on Warrior Stac. Of course the boys are distraught. Cane then requires the boys to confess to him. Jealous of Quill’s power, Cane banishes Quill.

As Quill climbs down the treacherous cliff from Midway Bothy to Lower Bothy, rage keeps Quill alive although he is “drowning in dark.” He finds a shallow cave to protect him from cold and stormy weather. The youngest boy, Davie, is the first to visit Quill.

One by one the other boys visit him in his exile and Quill comforts them by giving each a job according to how they are needed: “Keeper of Faces,” “Keeper of Memories.” He advises them “Do not dwell on the unbearable.”

Kenneth is the teen bully who was “the great snitcher, who used information like a crowbar to thrash his way through the world.” Even he visits Quill as does Quill’s best friend Murdo. But Murdo grows jealous of Quill. The reader will wonder is this a redux of Lord of the Flies?

This richly imagined world, to me, offers more, partly by imparting the technology such as ropes used to help scale escarpments—made on Hirta of sheep skin and horsehair. While exhiled on the stac, the boys string a horsehair taken from a rope through an oily bird, for a wick and it becomes a candle.

In time the boys give up hope, the birds leave for the winter, the storms arrive in full force—and the months pass. Starvation sets in.

Spoiler: The world had not ended, but a smallpox epidemic reduced their Hirta community to a handful of people and no one was able to captain the boat to Warrior Stac. In actual history, every man and boy returned home and found only one Hirta survivor. Both stories are riveting.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell’s Lift As You Climb: The Story of Ella Baker will be celebrated at her Virtual Book Release Party. Check https://talesforallages.com/ for link.

Filed Under: Book Reviews

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Things you can do

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
  • [Un]Subscribe to Posts

Writing Tips

  • Show-Don’t-Tell
  • Metaphors and Similes
  • Book Launch Party – Advice and Ideas
  • Voice and First Lines
  • To Comply or Not To Comply
  • Writing to Evoke Emotion – Writing Tip
  • Character Development – Writing Tip
  • Research for Writers

Book Reviews

  • “When the Mapou Sings” by Nadine Pinede.
  • “The Ballerina of Auschwitz” by Dr. Edith Eva Eger
  • “The Bletchley Riddle” by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
  • “Wild Dreamers” by Margarita Engle
  • “Buffalo Dreamer” by Violet Duncan
  • “How to Raise a Rhino” by Deb Aronson
  • “Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir” by Pedro Martín
  • “Keeping Pace” by Laurie Morrison
  • “The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II” by Candace Fleming.
  • “The Eyes and the Impossible” by Dave Eggers
  • “Skater Boy” by Anthony Nerada
  • “The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption” by Shannon Gibney
  • “The Davenports” by Krystal Marquis
  • “Forget Me Not” by Alyson Derrick
  • “For Lamb” by Lesa Cline-Ransome
  • “The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School” by Sonora Reyes
  • “High Spirits” by Camille Gomera-Tavarez
  • “Iveliz Explains it All” by Andrea Beatriz Arango
  • “Family of Liars” by E. Lockhart
  • “Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix” by Anna-Marie McLemore
  • “I Could Not Do Otherwise: The Remarkable Life of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker” by Sara Latta
  • “The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen” by Isaac Blum
  • “The Epic Story of Every Living Thing” by Deb Caletti
  • “Lines of Courage” by Jennifer A. Nielsen
  • “Ellen Outside the Lines” by A.J. Sass
  • Ideas for becoming an Activist
  • “Murder Among Friends” by Candace Fleming
  • “I Must Betray You” by Ruta Sepetys
  • “Concrete Rose” by Angie Thomas
  • “Huda F Are You?” by Huda Fahmy
  • “In the Wild Light” by Jeff Zentner
  • “The Great Godden” by Meg Rosoff
  • “Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter” by Veronica Chambers with Jennifer Harlan
  • “From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement” by Paula Yoo
  • “Home is Not a Country” by Safia Elhillo
  • “Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit” by Colby Cedar Smith
  • “All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team” by Christina Soontornvat
  • “They Went Left” by Monica Hesse
  • “A Sitting in St. James” by Rita Williams-Garcia
  • “Bones of a Saint” by Grant Farley
  • “Love is a Revolution” by Renee Watson
  • “Ana on the Edge” by A.J. Sass
  • “Echo Mountain” by Lauren Wolk
  • “Punching the Air” by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
  • “Furia” by Yamile Saied Méndez
  • “This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality” by JoAnn Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy
  • “King and the Dragonflies” by Kacen Callender
  • “Three Things I Know Are True” by Betty Culley
  • “Dancing at the Pity Party: a dead mom graphic memoir” by Tyler Feder
  • “Everything Sad is Untrue” by Daniel Nayeri
  • “The Black Kids” by Christina Hammonds Areed
  • “Someday We Will Fly” by Rachel DeWoskin
  • “Being Toffee” by Sarah Crossan
  • “Clap When You Land” by Elizabeth Acevedo
  • “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You” by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  • “The Great Nijinsky: God of Dance” by Lynn Curlee
  • “Dig” by A.S. King
  • “Where the World Ends” by Geraldine McCaughrean
  • “Degenerates” by J. Albert Mann
  • “Lovely War” by Julie Berry
  • “Brave Face: A Memoir: How I Survived Growing Up, Coming out, and Depression” by Shaun David Hutchinson
  • “Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All” by Laura Ruby
  • “1919: The Year That Changed America” by Martin W. Sandler”
  • “Fountains of Silence” by Ruta Sepetys
  • “Blood Water Paint” by Joy McCullough
  • “Falling Over Sideways” by Jordan Sonnenblick
  • “The Downstairs Girl” by Stacey Lee
  • “Darius the Great is Not Okay” by Adib Khorram
  • “A Heart in a Body in the World” by Deb Caletti
  • “Stepsister” by Jennifer Donnelly
  • “A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919” by Claire Hartfield
  • “Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation” retold by Ari Folman and illustrated by David Polonsky
  • “The War Outside” by Monica Hesse
  • “Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster” by Jonathan Auxier
  • “The Chaos of the Stars” by Kiersten White
  • “Pride” by Ibi Zoboi
  • “Boots on the Ground: America’s War in Vietnam” by Elizabeth Partridge
  • “Hey, Kiddo” by Jarrett J. Korosoczka
  • “The Truth As Told By Mason Buttle” by Leslie Connor
  • “Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo
  • “The Journey of Little Charlie” by Christopher Paul Curtis
  • “How to be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals” by Sy Montgomery
  • “The House in Poplar Wood” by K.E. Ormsbee
  • “All That I Can Fix” by Crystal Chan
  • Wiki: “9 Wonderful Historical Novels for Young Readers”
  • “Hiding” by Henry Turner
  • “Price of Duty” by Todd Strasser
  • “We Are All That’s Left” by Carro Arcos
  • “Moonrise” by Sarah Crossan
  • “Orphan Monster Spy” by Matt Killeen
  • “Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World” by Pénélope Baglieu
  • “We Are Okay” by Nina LaCour
  • “The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed Their Lives” by Dashka Slater
  • “I Have Lost My Way” by Gayle Forman
  • “Turtles All the Way Down” by John Green
  • “Bull” by David Elliott
  • “Gem & Dixie” by Sara Zarr
  • “One of Us Is Lying” by Karen M. McManus
  • “Spinning” by Tillie Walden
  • “Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds
  • “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by Maurene Goo
  • “Far From the Tree” by Robin Benway
  • “What Girls Are Made Of” by Elana K. Arnold
  • “You Bring the Distant Near” by Mitali Perkins
  • “American Street” by Ibi Zoboi
  • “Genuine Fraud” by E. Lockhart
  • “Forest World” by Margarita Engle
  • “If I Was Your Girl” by Meredith Russo
  • “Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers” by Deborah Heiligman
  • “The Bitter Side of Sweet” by Tara Sullivan
  • “Exit, Pursued by a Bear” by E.K. Johnston
  • “Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time” by Tanya Lee Stone
  • “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
  • “Dreamland Burning” by Jennifer Latham
  • “A List of Cages” by Robin Roe
  • “The Sun is Also a Star” by Nicola Yoon
  • “The Passion of Dolssa” by Julie Berry
  • “March: Book Three” by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell
  • “Ghost” by Jason Reynolds
  • Second Loving vs. Virginia Giveaway – Thanksgiving
  • “Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey” by Özge Samanci
  • Research for Loving vs. Virginia: a documentary novel
  • “Presenting Buffalo Bill: The Man Who Invented the Wild West” by Candace Fleming
  • First “Loving vs. Virginia” Give Away Winner
  • “Another Brooklyn” by Jacqueline Woodson
  • Why I wrote Loving vs. Virginia – Book Give Away
  • Graphic Novels: “Child Soldier,” “Roller Girl,” “Baba Yaga’s Assistant”
  • “The Lie Tree” by Frances Hardenge
  • “Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War” by Steve Sheinkin
  • “Flannery” by Lisa Moore
  • “The Incident on the Bridge” by Laura McNeal
  • “Anna and the Swallow Man” by Gavriel Savit
  • “Ghosts of Heaven” by Marcus Sedgwick
  • “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown
  • “Salt to the Sea” by Ruta Sepetys
  • “The Tightrope Walkers” by David Almond
  • “The Hired Girl” by Laura Amy Schlitz
  • “These Shallow Graves” by Jennifer Donnelly
  • “Don’t Fail Me Now” by Una LaMarche
  • “Under a Painted Sky” by Stacey Lee
  • “Last Leaves Falling” by Sarah Benwell
  • “Audacity” by Melanie Crowder
  • “The Boys Who Challenged Hitler” by Phillip Hoose
  • “Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans” by Don Brown
  • “Bone Gap” by Laura Ruby
  • “The Game of Love and Death” by Martha Brockenbrough
  • “Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own” by Kate Bolick
  • “How I Discovered Poetry” by Marilyn Nelson
  • “The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell by William Klaber
  • “How it Went Down” by Kekla Magoon
  • “A Time to Dance” by Padma Venkatraman
  • “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doer
  • “Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina” by Michaela DePrince
  • “Egg and Spoon” by Gregory Maguire
  • “This One Summer” by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki
  • “The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone” by Adele Griffin
  • “I’ll Give You the Sun” by Jandy Nelson
  • “Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson
  • “Blood Guard” by Carter Roy
  • “Going Over” by Beth Kephart
  • “Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel” by Anya Ulinich
  • “Josephine” Recorded Books, read by Lizan Mitchell SLJ starred review
  • “The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia” by Candace Fleming
  • “The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights” by Steve Sheinkin
  • What How and Why do You Write?
  • “West of the Moon” by Margi Preus
  • “We Were Liars” by E. Lockhart
  • “Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific” by Mary Cronk Farrell
  • “All the Truth That’s In Me” by Julie Berry
  • Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans During World War II by Martin W. Sandler
  • “Love in the Time of Global Warming” by Francesca Lia Block
  • “The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi” by Neal Bascomb
  • “The Weight of Water” by Sarah Crossan
  • “Fallout” by Todd Strasser (Candlewick 2013)
  • “Josephine” gets starred reviews from SLJ and Shelf Awareness
  • “March” by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell
  • “Winger” by Andrew Smith
  • “The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp” by Kathi Appelt
  • “Salt: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War” by Helen Frost
  • “Temple Grandin: How The Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World” by Sy Montgomery
  • Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff
  • “Paperboy” by Vince Vawter
  • Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 by Phillip Hoose
  • “One Came Home” by Amy Timberlake
  • “Titanic: Voices of the Disaster” by Deborah Hopkinson
  • “The Abandoned” by Paul Gallico
  • “Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard” by Annette LeBlanc Cate
  • “Best Friends Forever: A World War II Scrapbook” by Beverly Patt
  • “Lulu and the Duck in the Park” by Hilary McKay
  • “Navigating Early” by Clare Vanderpool
  • “Little White Duck: A Childhood in China” by Na Liu and Andrés Vera Martinez
  • “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio
  • “Liar and Spy” by Rebecca Stead
  • “The One and Only Ivan” by Katherine Applegate
  • “Bluefish” by Pat Schmatz
  • “The Dogs of Winter” by Bobbie Pyron
  • “Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature” by Nicola Davies; illustrated by Mark Hearld
  • “A Dog’s Way Home” by Bobbie Pyron
  • “No Shelter Here: Making the World a Kinder Place for Dogs” by Rob Laidlaw
  • “About Average” by Andrew Clements
  • “Kindred Souls” by Patricia MacLachlan and “The Friendship Doll” by Kirby Larson
  • “Unseen Guest” by Maryrose Woods
  • “Countdown” by Deborah Wiles, a documentary novel
  • “Letters to Leo” by Amy Hest and “Bless This Mouse” by Lois Lowry
  • “Jefferson’s Sons: A Founding Father’s Secret Children” by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
  • “Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem” by Rosalyn Schanzer
  • “Wonderstruck” by Brian Selznick
  • “Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart,” by Candace Fleming
  • “Waiting for Magic” Patricia MacLachlan & “Saint Louis Armstrong Beach” Brenda Wood
  • Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett
  • “Around the World” by Matt Phelan
  • Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
  • “City of Orphans” by Avi
  • “How to Survive Middle School” by Donna Gephart
  • All the World’s a Stage: A Novel in Five Acts by Gretchen Woelfle
  • Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman
  • “One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia
  • Heart of a Samurai (Newbery Honor) & The Secret World of Whales
  • Newbery 2011 – Moon Over Manifest & Turtle in Paradise
  • Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy
  • First Chapter Books–Some Really Good Ones
  • Cuba Books & interview with Antonio Sacre
  • The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place – by Maryrose Wood – Books One and Two
  • Storyteller by Patricia Reilly Giff (Wendy Lamb Books 2010)

Copyright © 2025 Patricia Hruby Powell | Website by Pixel Mountain Web Design LLC