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The Little Island (Dell Picture Yearling) [Paperback]

Margaret Wise Brown , Leonard Weisgard
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)

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Book Description

October 1, 1993 3 - 7 yearsDell Picture Yearling590L (What's this?)
Once there was a little island in the ocean. That little island changes as the seasons come and go. The storm and the day and night change it. So do the lobsters and seals and gulls that stop by. Then one day a kitten visits the little island and learns a secret that every child will enjoy.

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The Little Island (Dell Picture Yearling) + Marshmallow + Miss Rumphius
Price for all three: $19.77

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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Once there was a little island in the ocean. That little island changes as the seasons come and go. The storm and the day and night change it. So do the lobsters and seals and gulls that stop by. Then one day a kitten visits the little island and learns a secret that every child will enjoy.

From the Inside Flap

Once there was a little island in the ocean. That little island changes as the seasons come and go. The storm and the day and night change it. So do the lobsters and seals and gulls that stop by. Then one day a kitten visits the little island and learns a secret that every child will enjoy.

Product Details

  • Age Range: 3 - 7 years
  • Paperback: 48 pages
  • Publisher: Dragonfly Books; Reissue edition (October 1, 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 044040830X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0440408307
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 0.1 x 7.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

The illustrations are beautiful and the wording poetic, for the most part. LaughingFoxSong  |  13 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Library Binding
You may not recognize the author's name. But do you know that Golden MacDonald was a pen name for Margaret Wise Brown of Goodnight Moon fame? The text of this book captures the subtle rhythms of her appreciation for nature, and the connections that all beings and objects in nature have with one another. The book also won a Caldecott Medal for its shimmering and tingling watercolors. The images create a mood of the perpetual essence of nature, and our connections to one another through the blue-green and grey palettes used.

Children's books often contain more themes and important messages than 400 page novels. The Little Island is one of the great masterpieces in achieving that remarkable accomplishment.

The book covers the four seasons as they affect the little island and the plants and animals that visit the island. To show the on-going nature of the process, the book's time line expands beyond a single year.

The island is described as being:

"A part of the world

and a world of its own

all surrounded by the bright blue sea."

On the island, you will connect with birds, tides, clouds, fish, fogs, spiders, flowers, lobsters, seals, kingfishers, gulls, wild strawberries, butterflies, herring, mackerel, seaweed, pears, a black crow, a little kitten on a boat, trees, bushes, rocks, moths, an owl, a storm, snow, the sun, wind, and rain.

The connection to Donne is made in the context of the kitten visitor to the island. "May be I am an island too . . . a little fur Island in the air."

The connections run in all directions. The kitten learns from the island that the island is connected to all of the other land. When the kitten doubts the island about this point, the island suggests asking a fish....

The book uses other connections to make the point. Many animals need the little island to go through their annual cycle, such as the seals who raise their young on the island. Many of the insects and birds come from the mainland across the sea. The weather affects the sea, the island, and the mainland alike . . . as do the tides.

Some of the illustrations are so beautiful that you will want to carry them with you always. My favorite was of the kingfishers.

The story will be strengthened by what you choose to share with you child as you read the book out loud. There are opportunities here to share scientific facts, spiritual connections, and to explain the mutual dependency that occurs in nature.

I suspect that many people's lives have been enriched by the warm connections this book makes. Shouldn't your children and grandchildren have the same opportunity?

See the forest and the trees! Read more ›

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars ADD is a good description June 11, 2011
Format:Paperback
I usually love books like this, so I am sorry to have it give it only three stars. I agree with the other reviewer who said it had an ADD-like quality. It does, which is a shame because it could be rewritten to be a perfect story.

The main problem of the book is that you spend the first half of the book thinking that it will be about the island changing with the seasons. It is very similar to "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton. It is very poetic and descriptive of different animals and plants that change with the seasons.

Then all of a sudden a nonsensical tale about a kitten coming on a boat takes over. There are people with the kitten but we never hear about them. Then the kitten exchanges a couple lines with the island which don't really make sense. ("Maybe I am a little island too, said the kitten"). I was sort of ok with the change in theme until the part where the kitten flies high into the air and looks down on the island from the sky... totally random, has no real purpose. He's down the next moment and the abstruse dialogue between the kitten and island continues about the kitten's feet and whether the island is part of the world or not. It doesn't make any sense for about 5 pages until finally the concluding scientific point is made that the island is actually surrounded by ocean, so from a fish's point of view, it is indeed "connected" to the world around it. In other words, water unites all the world together.

I read the reviewer who connected it to John Donne, and while it's a neat connection in retrospect, you're not guided to this connection in the text. The secret that we're all connected to the big world somehow is Donne-like. But the kitten doesn't talk about his relationships or loneliness or anything.
... Read more ›
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Uncommon subject with gorgeous illustrations! July 4, 2006
Format:Hardcover
When I first bought the book, my 20 month old son was not interested! He didn't get the idea of an island. I loved the little story, so I persisted in reading it to him. When the winds blew on the island, I blew in his face. When the spiders spun their webs, I gave him little spider bites. When it showed the "tickly smelling pear tree" I tickled him. When the lobsters came, so did my claws! We barked like seals when they came to the island, and we fed each other strawberries fresh off the page when spring came! When the seagull lay her eggs, I dared him to try to get them and then I protected them as if I was the mama seagull. Of course, he knows them as the "my, my" birds. The fish jumped, the crow cawed, the cat came and so did the storms. The louder I boomed like thunder and splatted like lightening, the more my little boy loved it!! This treasure of a book is more suitable for older children who can digest the moral of this story, but my 20 month old son now loves it too, thanks to a little physical interaction while reading it! Might I say, Ms. Brown's prose is beautifully descriptive as well as the illustrations!
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
"The Little Island" must have been around for 50 years now. It's a powerful allegory for the connectedness of all things, with a wonderful, lyrical saturation of the text with imagery from nature. The illustrations emphasize the innocence of the message and the main characters, which are a cat and a fish. It's a book about knowing ("the cat's eyes were alive with the knowledge of it") and the impossibility of knowing directly ("answer me this or I'll eat you up," says the cat) the answers to the most important questions. This is a perspective changing book -- it changed mine at age 6.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful
I gave this to my granddaughter for her birthday, she's 8 and she loved it. I did too, by the way.
Published 20 days ago by L. J. Valentine
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic
Children love this, bought it for my great-granddaughter's preschool for all the children to enjoy. A classic, makes a great Bday gift,too
Published 21 days ago by Linda L. Hendricks
5.0 out of 5 stars Old book that was republished!
Anything that was written by Margaret Wise Brown is worthy reading to both your children and your grandchildren! I adore her creativity...
Published 1 month ago by Phyllis Ginsberg
5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book
this was a favorite love it thank you
I had heard about this book when I was younger
now I am really happy to share this with my own children
Great Seller
Published 2 months ago by Getit done
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!
This story is wonderful and calming for children -great bedtime story! Illustrations also are very good. I highly recommend this book for small children! Read more
Published 3 months ago by Brenda Brown
4.0 out of 5 stars nostalgic
This book makes me nostalgic for Maine! If you have ever been on a Maine island you will enjoy it. I bought it for my grandsons who are "Mainers"!
Published 4 months ago by Geegee
4.0 out of 5 stars For a little boy...
I bought this for a little boy, who doesn't read yet, but he couldn't stop looking at the pictures. I hope to hear that he also enjoys the story.
Published 5 months ago by Barbara
5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely book!
What a wonderful book!!! Reminds me of the old fashioned books I had growing up. Beautiful pictures and wonderful story. I love reading this book!!!!
Published 5 months ago by April D. Bonazzi
5.0 out of 5 stars The Little Island was a gift to my grand daughter
My son says she loves the book and asks him to read it to her often. Her Mom is from Indonesia and I think it reminds them of that.

Thank you.
Published 5 months ago by Carol Burns
4.0 out of 5 stars success
I do not appreciate when I have to fill this out with a specific number of words when one is enough; SUCCESS
Published 5 months ago by Natalie Cowan
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