Bigfoot Island by Roderick O’Grady

After the events of Bigfoot Mountain, the whole of Cabin Cove is trying to come to terms with what they saw….9 Bigfoot lolloping between the cabins before swimming off across the lake to their new home. Dan, Billy and Connie could not believe that the Bigfoot had been in the forest all that time but are relieved that they have found a new home away from the cabins. Minnie on the other hand knows better…Kaayii is still in the forest.

Everyday Minnie ventures back into the forest in hopes of finding evidence that her Sasquatch friend is still there but when a mysterious white shape across the lake approaches, her life is about to get a little more dangerous. Visitors have arrived at the cove and Minnie doesn’t like them. Alex, the father of the visitors, is ready to venture into the forest from the moment he steps on the beach but when Minnie spots what is slung over his shoulder, she tries everything to deter the family from entering her woods.

Kaayii is perched high in his favourite pine tree. He can see across the whole forest and best of all, he can keep an eye on his human friend, Minnie. While venturing back to the place where his Sasquatch family used to live before the Great Fire, Kaayii is shocked to discover that his grandmother’s grave has been disturbed, the sapling the family planted ripped out and thrown away. Something has come to the forest that makes Kaayii feel uneasy. Who or what could be lurking behind the trees watching?

When the two new sets of visitors begin to make themselves at home, both Minnie and Kaayii must race against the clock to protect each other but when one of them is injured, the other must make a perilous journey to seek help before it’s too late.

In Bigfoot Mountain, we see both Minnie and Kaayii dealing with the raw emotions of loss, with Minnie still grieving the death of her mother years before and Kaayii grieving the death of his grandmother early on. The shared theme of grief sets the foundation for Minnie and Kaayii creating this unique friendship where although friends, only one of them has seen the other. In Bigfoot Island, this friendship is expanded upon when Minnie and Kaayii fight to protect each other from the outside world and how they want to protect the life they have. Minnie doesn’t want to share her perfect order of the world with anyone and is reluctant to open up to new possibilities and friends, while Kaayii struggles with his new responsibilities of caring for the forest and keeping it in balance. Both Minnie and Kaayii do not want to upset the balance of their own perceptions of the forest.

Roderick is a great storyteller, especially using the dual aspect story telling where you can see how the stories intertwine without meeting. I really enjoy reading anything that Roderick O’Grady writes and look forward to if Minnie and Kaayii have more adventures in the future.