PENGUIN The Little Island: (Caldecott Medal Winner)

The 3 stars are all for the art. Beautiful, vintage (watercolour?) art. You could cut the book up and frame the art. Full page art, as well. But the story is just not there. I buy a lot of vintage children’s books. This one was originally published in 1946. The really really early children’s books sometimes have no sensical “A to C” plot like they would have today. The book starts off showcasing the seasons and all the animal activity. So by page 5 you thinking, ohh this is a nature book about the year in the life of this island. Neat! Then during summer this cat shows up and the cat and the island start talking to each other (the island has not talked this far, so big paradigm shift there!). The cat basically says “I’m real because I am connected to the ground/earth, but you are not real/tangible because you are out here floating in the sea”, to which basically the island tells the cat “I am connected to the earth under the ocean, but I can’t explain it to you or show you, so you’ll just have to have faith in my word.” Then they have like a two-three sentence conversation about the concept of faith and then the cat decides that he likes/trusts what the island has told him. Not because now he has faith or trusts the island (which from a scientific point is stupid enough already), BUT the cat decides to go along with it because he finds the whole thing very secretive and he likes secrets!? Then the cat is immediately gone from the story; we continue on with the seasons plot, and the story ends with the island basically being happy it’s an island.

Poetic and thought-provoking.

On vacation, so don't have book to hand. But I want to tell you this.Leonard Weisgard stands in a class of his own. He was one of the great illustrators of his times. Illustrators have always known that. Wonderful that some of his work is now being rediscovered and reprinted for the rest of us, though not nearly enough. (Where is Weisgard's beautiful Alice in Wonderland, perhaps the loveliest Alice interpretations since Tenniel and Rackham?) The Little Island is a declaration of love to a little island and to the sea and the sky and and the wind and the returning seasons, to the energy and mystery of the earth. The pictures and the stories can be understood and enjoyed by a small child and by every other human being. In the story, even a curious little black kitten comes to understand something of the marvels and mysteries of the infinitely connected universe. Some adults will find themselves wondering as they read if it is pretentious to drift towards"No man is an island,Entire of itself,Every man is a piece of the continent,A part of the main..."Here is the last page of Weisgard's and Wise's Island story:"Nights and days came and passedAnd summer and winterand the sun and the wind and the rain.And it was good to be a little Island.A part of the worldand a world of its ownall surrounded by the bright blue sea."Buy this book and give it to all who have eyes to see and ears to hear, of any age. You will make them happy.

Good book

Good accompaniment by the author of Good Night Moon. The girls love the cat talking to the fish.