Jen Calonita, a seasoned author of middle grade and young adult books, is releasing the second part of a series paying homage to her magic-filled childhood spent on the shores of the North Fork.
In the Isle of Ever series, Calonita shares the story of 12-year-old Everly Benedict, nicknamed “Benny,” who is tasked with finding an island that vanished hundreds of years ago to break a curse and earn the inheritance to her ancestor’s Greenport estate.
The first book in the series Isle of Ever was released in 2025.
In the second book, The Curse Breaker, Benedict’s mysterious adventure set on the North Fork picks right back up with the introduction of new perspectives, new questions and some answers that series readers may have been left looking for.
The inspiration for the setting of these spirited, captivating stories came from Calonita’s summers spent at her grandparents’ home in Mattituck.
Between visiting lighthouses, going to book signings at the local bookstore, doing grave rubbings, attending the Strawberry Festival and spending time on the Long Island Sound and Peconic Bay, Calonita’s time with her grandparents was invaluable to becoming an imaginative writer.
“I didn’t have streaming services, I didn’t have a phone, I didn’t have video games, so when I would get bored my grandmother would take me down to the Long Island Sound to dig for pirate treasure,” says Calonita. “I always thought she was kidding, but then she explained how Captain Kidd had sailed around here and he had buried treasure on Gardiners Island, and the rumor was always that treasure was buried elsewhere.”
As a child, Calonita convinced herself she and her grandmother couldn’t find any treasure because it was somewhere hidden from the real world.
These fantasies later turned into the Isle of Ever series, packed with references directly inspired by her childhood including historic Long Island names, restaurants modeled on real Greenport shops and restaurants, a historical society shaped by the East End Seaport Museum (100 Third St., Greenport, 631-477-2100, eastendseaport.org) and many other details recognizable by North Forkers.
“It’s a love letter to my grandparents,” says Calonita. “This series would not exist if they hadn’t built a house on the North Fork, and I feel like getting to weave in different parts of this place that has been such an important part of my life was so important.”
Her career as an author started 20 years ago with the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series, becoming the first of nearly 50 books Calonita has published since then.
Calonita’s wide variety of books can be found on the realistic kids’ fiction, magic realism and fractured fairytale shelves among others. She also writes Disney re-tellings featuring the franchise’s favorite characters in new stories, and wrote The Taylors, a tale of four middle-school-aged Taylor Swift fans.
The Curse Breaker will be available at Burton’s Books (43 Front St., Greenport, 631-477-1161, burtonsbooks.com) and A Book Place (489 E. Main St., Riverhead, 631-405-7902, abookplace.com), and a third book in the series is set to come out in March 2027.
