The Isle of the Lost (Descendants Series #1)

by Melissa de la Cruz

Overview

Evil tree. Bad Apple?

Twenty years ago, all the evil villains were banished from the kingdom of Auradon to the Isle of the Lost-a dark and dreary place protected by a force field that makes it impossible for them to leave. Stripped of their magical powers, the villains now live in total isolation, forgotten by the world.

Mal learns from her mother, Maleficent, that the key to true darkness, the Dragon's Eye, is located inside her scepter in the forbidden fortress on the far side of the island. The eye is cursed, and whoever retrieves it will be knocked into a deep sleep for a thousand years. But Mal has a plan to capture it. She'll just need a little help from her "friends." In their quest for the Dragon's Eye, these four kids begin to realize that just because you come from an evil family tree, being good ain't so bad.

Praise for The Isle of the Lost
"Disney lovers and fairy-tale fans alike will need to get their hands on this book." - School Library Journal

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781484725443
Publisher:	Disney Press
Publication date:	04/25/2017
Series:	Disney's Descendants Series , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	11,821
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Melissa de la Cruz is the best-selling author of many novels, including the second book in this series, Return to the Isle of the Lost, as well as the books in the Blue Bloods series: Blue Bloods, Masquerade, Revelations, The Van Alen Legacy, Keys to the Repository, Misguided Angel, Bloody Valentine, Lost in Time, and Gates of Paradise. She lives in Los Angeles with her family. Find Melissa online at melissa-delacruz.com, on Twitter @melissadelacruz, and on Facebook and Instagram @authormelissadelacruz.

Editorial Reviews

"Disney lovers and fairy-tale fans alike will need to get their hands on this book."— School Library Journal

PRAISE FOR RETURN TO THE ISLE OF THE LOST

"Packed with plenty of humor and adventure, this sequel spinoff is destined to please. With a second movie in the works and a bevy of loyal readers, it certainly won't stay on shelves for long."— Booklist

From the Publisher

07/01/2015
Gr 4–6—All the evil villains of Disney movie fame have been exiled to the Isle of the Lost. A huge dome covers the island, keeping them from using any magic. They are relegated to eating scraps and wearing castoffs of the good citizens of Auradon, ruled by King Beast and Queen Belle. The children of Maleficient, Jabar, Evil Queen, and Cruella De Vil (respectively Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos) don't know any other life away from the island. Every aspect of their existence is focused on becoming more evil, and finding nefarious ways to entertain themselves. When Carlos invents a device that is meant to provide them with more cable channels, he inadvertently opens a hole in the dome, allowing a tiny bit of magic to reactivate Maleficient's scepter, the Dragon's Eye. The four go off on a quest to find the staff, each for their own selfish reasons. All the while, though, the descendants of the most evil villains to ever walk the earth are starting to (gasp!) show signs of caring for each other. And over on Auradon, Prince Ben, son of Beast and Belle, is having visions of a beautiful blue-haired girl he's never met, even though he's betrothed to Princess Audrey, daughter of Aurora. Clichéd characters and a predictable plot probably won't deter young readers from finishing this fun little romp through practically every Disney movie ever made. VERDICT Billed as a prequel to a Disney Channel movie, there's a built-in fan base for this story. Disney lovers and fairy-tale fans alike will need to get their hands on this book.—Mandy Laferriere, Fowler Middle School, Frisco, TX

School Library Journal

2015-04-01
In a prequel to an upcoming Disney Channel film, the offspring of four familiar villains bond in an effort to impress their evil parents. Having grown to adolescence in exile beneath a magic-banishing dome on the titular island, Mal, Carlos, Jay, and Evie—the children of, respectively, Maleficent, Cruella De Vil, Jafar, and Snow White's Evil Queen—set out to fetch Maleficent's staff from her Forbidden Fortress. Along with having to pass riddle and other tests clumsily designed to get them to admit the banality of their parents' values, the quest forces the young would-be baddies to cooperate and even to moderate their 'tudes. De la Cruz turns the quest and its interminable buildup into a wordy string of trite situations in which every character trait is carefully explained lest readers miss something: "Lonely, Mal thought. I was lonely. And so were they. Evie, with her beauty-obsessed mother; Carlos, with his screeching harpy of a parent; Jay, the happy-go-lucky thief with a quick wit and dashing smile, who could steal anything in the world except his father's heart." Meanwhile, over in the United States of Auradon, Prince Ben, son of King Beast and Queen Belle, chafes at his lack of life choices and with an impulsive but unspecified notion at the end serves up a teaser for the film. A paint-by-numbers effort to market a spinoff that's likely to be equally ephemeral. (Fantasy. 11-13)

Kirkus Reviews

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