The+Little+Island


 * The Little Island **




 * __Biographical Data__**


 * • ISBN: 0-440-40830-X
 * • Author: Golden MacDonald
 * • Illustrator: Leonard Weisgard
 * • Publisher: Dragonfly Books, a division of Random House, Inc
 * • Publication date: 1946
 * • Pages: 42
 * • Age range: 4 - 8 Years


 * __Summary__**

The author describes the seasons changing on a little island and how the seasons affect the wildlife. In the summer a little kitten arrives on the little island by boat and she starts talking to the Little Island. The little kitten jumps in the air and tells the island that she is a little island too. The Little Island agreed with her. The little kitten answers the island and tells her that, unlike the Little Island, she is part of the big world. The Little Island tells her that she is too, but the kitten does not believe her. “Ask the fish”, says the island. And the kitten does. She finds out that everything is connected and we all are a part in this great, big world.


 * __Book review__**

This book was written in the 1930’s and quite heavy, compared to children’s books authors write these days. The setting of the book would appeal to a nature-loving child, since it describes what happens in nature on the Little Island. The author uses short sentences and the tone of the book is serious, with religious undertones. The pictures in the book are beautiful, subdued and they are composed of earth colors.


 * __Author__**

Golden MacDonald is the pen name of Margaret Wise Brown, the author of the well known books “//The Runaway Bunny”// and //“Good night Moon”.// She also used the pen names Timothy Hay and Juniper Sage. Margaret Brown was born in New York City on May 23, 1910 and died in Nice, France on November 13, 1952. When she died they found seventy unpublished manuscripts, which her sister tried to get published, unsuccessfully.


 * __Literary Element Analysis__**

The book describes how every season has its own rhythm. Birds, animals, and people come and go with each season. It all seems to happen haphazardly, but the author tells us that everything is connected to each other. There is an ebb and flow to life and everything in life has its own purpose. She shows us that each animal, bird, insect, and person is a part of a bigger whole. We all depend on each other. The seals depend on the safety of the island to raise their babies, the birds lay their eggs here. Although the island seems deserted, it has a life of its own, and it is a part of a larger world.