History Literature / IslandOfTheAunts

* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: Of the mermaid family, one is a visibly old lady, and the baby is a merboy, who is rather chubby. Only the young twin mermaids resemble the stereotype.

** Mr. Sprott invading the island to kidnap the creatures and create an horrible amusement park that will exploit their suffering for cheap laugh.

* PoliceAreUseless: {{Inverted}}. Minette and Fabio's families believe that the police are sitting down doing nothing because they want to blame someone instead of themselves (the children have disappeared mostly due to their neglect) and because they are profiting from releasing interviews where they lament about the investigations, earning a good cash. Mr. Sprott also resolves to go find Lambert by himself when he receives his call instead of alerting the police because he doesn't trust them (he's a CorruptCorporateExecutive and the police are investigating on his shadier businesses). The police are actually doing a fairly good investigation following Mr. Sprott himself but most of the time they are stayingg silent until they find real evidences.

* TheBusCameBack: It's mentioned that the sisters were actually five: there is Betty, who didn't like living in the island and becomes a suburban housewife in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Dorothy, an activist who travels the world trying to save rate animals to be serves in restaurant. Both sisters eventually appear on page.

* PoliceAreUseless: {{Inverted}}. Minette and Fabio's families believe that the police are sitting down doing nothing because they want to blame someone instead of themselves (the children have disappeared mostly due to their neglect) and because they are realising interviews where they lament aboutthe investigation, earning them some cash. Mr. Sport also resolves to go find Lambert by himself when he receives his call instead of alerting the police because he doesn't trust them (he's a CorruptCorporateExecutive and the police are investigating on his shadier businesses). The police are actually doing a fairly good investigation following Mr. Sprott himself but most of the time they are keeping silent until they find real evidences.
* SelkiesAndWereseals: One of the aunts is friends with Herbert, a suspiciously intelligent-looking seal. She reads him poetry and plays him classical music with her cello.

* ShipSinking: [[spoiler: Aside from the ''actual'' [[{{Pun}} ship sinking]] Herbert and Myrtle do not get together despite an entire novel of ShipTease. He's not happy as a man and decides to turn into a seal again and leaves to the Kraken. Myrtle is heartbroken, but knows that letting him go is the right thing to do.]]
* SirensAreMermaids: Parodied. A mermaid tried to make money by causing a ship to sink, enchanting the captain with her hypnotizing singing voice... sadly, the times had changed, and instead of gold and treasures, the ship she caused to sink had oil on board.

* BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord: When Mr. Sprott finds about the island and its magic creatures he tries to blackmail the aunts into selling him the island, otherwise he will eat them out to the police.
* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: Fabio is sent by his grandparents at the horrible Graymarsh Towers to learn being an "English gentleman",while he's mercilessly mistreated and bullied.

* FamilyOfChoice: Minette and Fabio find the aunt to be more caring than their actual guardians and become their actual [[Honorary Aunts HonoraryUncle]]. The aunts eventually write a will that legally leaves to island to Minette and Fabio once they will have passed away, despite the fact that they have two nephews of the same age, who are perfectly unfit to take care of the island and its creatures.

* FamilyOfChoice: Minette and Fabio find the aunt to be more caring than their actual guardians and become their actual [[Honorary Aunts HonoraryUncle]].

* SelkiesAndWereseals: One of the aunts is friends with a suspiciously intelligent-looking seal. She reads him poetry.

** StockholmSyndrome: It doesn't take the children long to enjoy living on the island and helping the aunts. It helps that the aunts are considerably more caring than the children's own guardians are. This is lampshaded at one point when Minette asks Fabio if they shouldn't be planning an escape from the island, but they enjoy living there too much to think about running away.

''Island of the Aunts'' is a 1999 children's book by Creator/EvaIbbotson, also published under the name ''Monster Mission''

** Children being kidnapped, anyone? The aunts are not malicious, but you cannot chill at Minette's parents (despite being mostly unsympathetic characters) realization that their daughter ''is not living'' with any of them.

* BrokenBird: Queeny's sister, who had been captured by a sailor for several days before escaping. She is incredibly withdrawn and her voice is still hoarse from crying so much.

''Island of the Aunts'' is a children's book by Creator/EvaIbbotson, also published under the name ''Monster Mission''

* BreakTheHaughty: Poor [[spoiler:Queeny]], after she's caught by Lambert's father.

On the island, Minette and Fabio, after proving themselves by hard work caring for the local fauna, are told about the island’s secret: There are magical creatures, too, a family of mermaids, and a boobrie, a giant bird, and others. The aunts try to keep Lambert ignorant, but he manages to phone is father, and that’s when things become really difficult for the aunts.

Three sisters (the eponymous aunts) take care of injured and sick creatures on a tiny island somewhere. They are not becoming any younger, and when, one day, they’re watching a TV show about extinct animals, they suddenly realize that they might go extinct themselves. They need young people to help them and inherit their duties. Therefore, they decide to kidnap kids whom nobody will miss, as the island is top-secret, and just hiring people won’t do. (Their niece and newphew are spoiled children, who really wouldn’t be able to do hard work; the offspring of a sister who found the island unhygienic and fled as soon as she was an adult.) Etta kidnaps Minette, whose divorced parents are constantly fighting and have her travel from one to the other via train on a regular basis. Coral chooses Fabio, who is originally from Brazil, and is just about to be sent to a horrible English school, where it is implied he will be bullied for looking foreign. Myrtle soon decides that the boy she volunteered to babysit, Lambert, is a horrible child, but when he accidentally sniffs her chloroform, she sees no other solution than to take him to the island and let her sisters sort it out.

Three sisters (the eponymous aunts) take care of injured and sick creatures on a tiny island somewhere. They are not becoming any younger, and when, one day, they’re watching a TV show about extinct animals, they suddenly realize that they might go extinct themselves. They need young people to help them and inherit their duties. Therefore, they decide to kidnap kids whom nobody will miss, as the island is top-secret, and just hiring people won’t do. (Their niece and newphew are spoiled children, who really wouldn’t be able to do hard work; the offspring of a sister who found the island unhygienic and fled as soom as she was an adult.) Etta kidnaps Minette, whose divorced parents are constantly fighting and have her travel from one to the other via train on a regular basis. Coral chooses Fabio, who is originally from Brazil, and is just about to be sent to a horrible English school, where it is implied he will be bullied for looking foreign. Myrtle soon decides that the boy she volunteered to babysit, Lambert, is a horrible child, but when he accidentally sniffs her chloroform, she sees no other solution than to take him to the island and let her sisters sort it out.

* ShapeshiftingLover: When someone attacks the abovementioned seal, this trope ensues for the aunt who was friends with his seal-form.

* JerkassWoobie: Lambert, towards the end. By the time his father shows up, he's desperate to be taken away from the island. His father insists on keeping him around while the mystical people of the island are rounded up. While this is going on, Lambert becomes increasingly upset and certain that his father intends to take one of the mermaids as a new wife (keep in mind, he's absolutely convinced the mermaids aren't even ''real''). He ends up having nightmares about it. [[spoiler:By the time he's left in a lifeboat fleeing the Krakon, muttering in his sleep about how everything is just a dream as the only way to calm himself, even his {{jerkass}} father feels some pity for him.]]

* AbuseThroughNeglect: Minette's parents, towards her. While her mother's boyfriend isn't technically related, we do see him hoping she'll be sent to stay with her father because she takes up too much space in their house.

* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: Of the mermaid family, one is a visibly old lady, and the baby is a merboy, who is rather chubby. Only the young twin mermaids resemble the stereotype.

* LimaSyndrome: The aunts were never malicious, but they do grow fond of the kids and become a bit more realistic about the whole kidnapping business.
* SelkiesAndWereseals: One of the aunts is friends with a suspiciously intelligent-looking seal. She reads him poetry.
* NeverMessWithGranny: Never mess with mermaid granny. The aunts are not actual grandmothers, but still badass, too.
* ColdBloodedTorture: The villains use a family-friendly version of this to get information about the location of magical creatures.

* ShapeshiftingLover: When someone attacks the abovementioned seal, this trope ensues for the aunt who was friends with his seal-form.
* BrokenAngel: After getting into an oil spill, the mermaids lose their mermaid-typical beauty.

* ShapeshiftingLover: When someone attacks the abovementioned seal, this trope ensues for the aunt who was friends with his seal-form.

''Island of the Aunts'' is a novel by Creator/EvaIbbotson, also published under the name ''Monster Mission''

* SelkiesAndWereseals: One of the aunts is friends with a suspiciously intelligent-looking seal.

* TheKindnapper: The aunts are well-meaning, and originally intended to only kidnap kids who wanted to get away from their ordinary lives, anyway. Lambert was an accident.

* NeverMessWithGranny: Never mess with mermaid granny. The aunts are not actual grandmothers, but still badass, too.

* SelkiesAndWereseals: One of the aunts is friends with a suspiciously intelligent-looking seal.