Throughout his long career as a writer of adventure stories, Robert Michael Ballantyne remained a boy at heart; he was one of the first Victorian writers to identify himself with the young reader's point of view. Girls as well as boys looked forward to his annual Christmas volume, and when he died the boys of Harrow School subscribed to erect a memorial to him. The Coral Island is his best memorial today. Revisiting the potent myth of the castaway, it tells of three young sailors, sole survivors of a wreck, and their discovery of the enchanting beauties of the South Pacific. They learn how to live off their tropical paradise and its coral groves, but then they are swept into adventures with bloodthirsty pirates, before eventually sailing home to England. Ballantyne sold his story outright for less than #100 in 1858; it has never been out of print since. learn to hunt and fish, and to build a shelter. They gather This book is intended for student-teachers, readers of adventure stories, general readers.