[Isle of the Sea Horse contains] a perpetually interesting situation …—a group of people, isolated, fending for themselves, getting to know each other and themselves. The new book has a kinder view of human nature than [William Golding's] Lord of the Flies, for instance. The five learn to trust and accept each other…. There is much of interest here but children need to recognize and identify. Ivan Southall's To the Wild Sky will mean much more to them. And it is disappointing that, in trying to produce something so very different, Mrs. Brinsmead has lost all the zest and pace of her last book, A Sapphire for September. (p. 1203)