Elemental by Antony John

I found this book on the new releases shelf at my public library, and I gave it a rating of four out of five. Thomas  lives with The Guardians and their children on Hatteras Island, just off the Atlantic coast. The Guardians and their children are Elementals, able to control different parts of nature. Some control water, some the air, and some the earth. However, Thomas is kind of an outcast, because he doesn't seem to have any Elemental powers. The children are sent to Roanoke Island for protection against an oncoming storm, but they start to uncover some secrets about an abandoned town on the island. They realize the adult Elementals have been keeping secrets from them, and they are shocked to find pirates have kidnapped their parents. However, the pirates really want to get their hands on Thomas and his younger brother. Apparently, they hold the key to The Solution. Is the problem the plague that wiped out the population, or is there something even bigger going on?

The plot started off slowly for me, but it became more interesting once the children started to find strange things around Skeleton Town, on Roanoke Island. The children did't realize that the setting for this book was only a couple of miles from North America. A plague killed all of the people on the mainland, but Hatteras Island and Roanoke Island offered protection from the illness. It was fun to see characters' secrets revealed as they tried to discover the truths to their parents' lies. The pirates created action and suspense. A secret about Dash, leader of the pirates, is realized on the last page of the book. I assume there is a sequel to this book.