Customer Reviews

The Little Island

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!

None of the reviews here seem to "get" the aspect of the book that struck me the most. We just received The Little Island as a gift for our two-year-old daughter's birthday. I had never heard of the book before, but Margaret Wise Brown is one of my favorite children's authors. My daughter is still too young for this book, but when I read it myself for the first time I was struck with wonder at how different, beautiful, and magical is was, and it made me cry.

Other reviewers have noted the descriptions of plants and wildlife, and yes, these aspects are beautiful. But the "meat" of the book is when a cat comes to the island with its people on a boat, and learns that the island is much more than it seems. The pages describing the cat's journey to knowledge are magical. The cat thinks that the island doesn't matter much, because it's not connected to the world around it. 'Yes I am', says the island; 'ask the fish'. The cat catches a fish and demands to know how the island is part of the bigger land. 'Come with me', says the fish. 'I cannot swim', says the cat. 'Then you will have to take it on faith', says the fish. 'What is that - faith?' asks the cat. "Faith is to believe what I tell you about what you don't know", says the fish. (That line almost knocked me over; what a wonderful piece of writing!) "All lands are one land under the sea", says the fish. The cat realizes he has learned a great truth, and his eyes "were shining with the secret of it, and because he loved secrets, he let the fish go". Then the cat leaves the island, and the island settles back into the timeless cycle of the seasons.

Like Margaret Wise Brown's other books, this one looks at the world with a sense of wonder and discovery, and maybe makes both parent and child see things with a new set of eyes. (I think of the last line of Brown's "My World" - "My tree; the bird's tree - how many stripes on a bumblebee?") I look forward to sharing this book with my daughter when she's a little older.

As a child, I loved reading this book. The wonderful pictures were a pleasure to look at, and the simple but clever story was fun and informative for a little kid (it accomplished more in a few pages than Whinny the Pooh ever could). I'm a little old for it now, but I'll never forget this good book.

A little island in the big ocean is rich with wildlife and nature despite its remote location and seeming isolation, and rich and gorgeous watercolors accompany Margaret Wise Brown and Leonard Weisgard's The Little Island, a tale of seasonal changes on that island. The Little Island is a warm, revealing story with plenty of eye-catching realistic color drawings.

A little island in the big ocean is rich with wildlife and nature despite its remote location and seeming isolation, and rich and gorgeous watercolors accompany Margaret Wise Brown and Leonard Weisgard's The Little Island, a tale of seasonal changes on that island. The Little Island is a warm, revealing story with plenty of eye-catching realistic color drawings.

This book is so great. It manages to entertain both children and adults, and not in a wink-wink Disney sort of way. It's thought-provoking and philosophical and just beautifully written. One of my favorites.

My grandson & I have been walking in the fields & woods adjacent to a U.S.Govt site. There is a small pond with a small island on the grounds of this site...He is now 5.The former farm, never fails to amaze us, but the Island with the Herons,geese, turtles and fish on & around the tiny island he absolutely loves, as I also enjoy. So this book any child can relate to.

The Little Island is an Eden-esque world unto iteself, where golden pears grow, flowers bloom, lobsters shed their hard shells and a visiting black kitten expands his world view with the help of a small fish. Beautiful illustrations and spare, poetic writing make this book a classic that resonates with audiences today just as it did more than half a century ago. Its tranquil tone makes it the perfect book before naptime, bedtime or anytime a child needs a break from active play. Highly recommended.

My 4 year old grandson and I have enjoyed reading together since he was a baby and he has always liked the stories and illustations in the Margaret Wise Brown books. This one is especially nice for summer....and also noting the change of seasons on the island.

The Little Island is a book k about a little island and what happens to it over the course of a small amount of time. Some people and their cat sail to this island to have a picnic and and the cat is very curious about the island. This book teaches sometimes things are better left alone like the island is nicer before the cat comes. It is good for a 4-6 year old child with a lot of colorful pictures for the child ton look at.