THE NORTHERN ISLE OF DREAMS Christine Laporte. Illustrated by Judie Shorte. Toronto, Three Trees Press, c1982. unpaged, paper, $11.95 (paperbound boards), $4.95 (paper). ISBN 0-88823-055-9 (paperbound boards), 0-88823-056-7 (paper). Grades 4 and up. Reviewed by Margaret Montgomery. Volume 11 Number 3. 1983 May. This book has a problem not uncommon to Canadian books: it lacks an audience. It is written at the grade 7-8 reading level (Fry graph); it features double pages of unrelieved type interspersed with grey (black-and-white if you insist, but they look dull and grey) illustrations. There are in all twenty-three pages of print and nine of the full-page illustrations. The size of the book and its bright cover lead one to consider it a picture book but the interior dispels that notion. The story itself is a complex one concerning a rich merchant's search for his Prince who has escaped to the Northern Isle to avoid his now-dead father's constant wars. Evidently the theme is meant to be "swords into ploughshares," but the long involved story tends to obscure that idea. I noted that the women do nothing useful; indeed, they are treated in the "do not bother your pretty little head" way. I also noticed spelling mistakes and errors of logic in the text: the buildings were "razed" but the walls are still standing; during a storm the merchant watches the moon; he goes "under" the drawbridge in his carriage; a plague is reported to have decimated the population of the town, but the characters in the book are apparently immune. Not recommended. Margaret Montgomery, West Vemon E. S., Vemon, BC.