The Islander

The Islander is a book by the Newbery Medal winning author Cynthia Rylant, published in 1998 by Dorling Kindersley.

It is the story of Daniel, whose parents have died; he goes to live with his grandfather on a remote gray island off British Columbia. Together they live an extremely lonely life, hardly talking to anyone. That loneliness soon lifts from Daniel when he meets a mermaid. He returns to the shore later, hoping to meet her again, but instead finds a sea otter, who then tosses him a seashell which contains a key. As he explores the mysteries of the key he soon grows closer with his grandfather. The novel will touch and is a quick read.

External links

The Islander (album)

The Islander is a 1998 album by New Zealand singer-songwriter Dave Dobbyn. It reached #1 on the New Zealand music charts.

Background

The album's title comes from Dobbyn's reflection what it is to be a New Zealander: "I've come to terms with the fact that I'm a Pacific Islander a long time ago. There's nothing vaguely European about me apart from the colour of my skin. So I've called it The Islander because it's a stamp of identity."

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Dave Dobbyn. 

Critical reception

The album has been described as "quintessentially New Zealand" with Dobbyn at the peak of his talents. It is also noted as a culmination of the directness of his pub-rock DD Smash work and later rock albums, while 'Hallelujah Song' signals the start of his Christian influences in future releases.

Credits

The Islander (song)

"The Islander" is the tenth track on symphonic metal band Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play album. It was confirmed to be the album's fifth single on the website Nightwish-World on February 23, 2008, only a week after the fourth single, "Bye Bye Beautiful", was released. It was released on May 21, 2008, and the video itself premiered on April 14, 2008.

As with some of Nightwish' other songs (including for example "Creek Mary's Blood" from Once), the song is highly influenced by folk music rather than the symphonic power metal they usually play, and uses only acoustic guitars, rather than electric. It is fully acoustic, except the use of some keyboard effects and drums, though folk-inspired. Marco Hietala sings the whole song with backing vocals from Anette Olzon and Tuomas Holopainen. He also wrote most of the music for the song, unlike most others, which were written by Tuomas Holopainen. The song used guest musician Troy Donockley who is featured on several instruments.

The single features an instrumental version of Dark Passion Play's bonus track "Escapist" as well as an orchestral version of "Meadows of Heaven". It also features the videos to "The Islander" and "Bye Bye Beautiful".