The Little Island [Library Binding]

Golden MacDonald (Author), Leonard Weisgard (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1946 | Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Relates the ways in which the changing seasons affect a tiny island and its plant and animal life.

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. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Library Binding: 42 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Inc. (1946)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0613064151
• ISBN-13: 978-0613064156
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Children's Version of "No Man Is An Island" by John Donne, April 16, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Little Island (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 kitten gets the answer there, but cannot get firm proof. He just has to take the fish's word for it. This is an obvious allusion to the element of faith in our understanding of the spiritual nature of our connections to one another. Having the kitten fish is also an allusion to the famous Biblical reference of teaching a man to fish, rather than providing him with 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!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In a subtle way, the best children's book I've ever read., July 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Little Island (Dell Picture Yearling) (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.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous! An A+ First Quality Book!!!, January 24, 2002

By 

Deborah Ava Esposito (Mons, Belgium) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Little Island (Dell Picture Yearling) (Paperback)

Even if this book had no words, I would still love it, because the illustrations are that brilliant!!~~
The wording is quite clever.
This story tells about a little island, and the changing seasons it lives through.
This island is home to many creatures, and serves many, many purposes.
Lobsters crawl underneath the island to find dark hiding places.
Seals come to have and raise babies.
Birds come to build nests and lay eggs.
In spring, flowers bloom on this little island. In summer, strawberries ripen.
One day, a family on a boat stops at the island for an afternoon picnic. With them, there is a black kitty.
The kitty observes:
"My what a small island. You are as small as big is big."
The island converses with this kitty, and teaches him that everything is a wonderful part of this world, and equally unique and important.
The kitty learns a secret from a fish- 'All land is one land under the sea'.
In autumn, the pears ripen on the lone pear tree on the island, and finally winter comes with snow.
It was good to be a little island. A part of the world, and a world of its own.