1947 - The Little Island

The tenth book to be awarded the Caldecott Medal was The Little Island, written by Golden MacDonald and illustrated by Leonard Weisgard, published in 1946 by Doubleday.

This sweet little book begins by showing the arrival of spring and summer to a tiny island that is happily sitting in the middle of the ocean, enjoying the changing seasons.  One day, a kitten comes to the island on a small sailboat with his people, for a picnic.  The kitten and the island have a conversation, where the kitten learns the meaning of faith.

While researching this title I learned that Golden MacDonald is a pseudonym for Margaret Wise Brown.  Yup, Margaret "Goodnight Moon" Wise Brown.  Besides using her real name, Brown wrote under four pen names: Golden MacDonald, Timothy Hay, Juniper Sage, and Kaintuck Brown.

Besides The Little Island, Brown wrote four other books under the name Golden MacDonald, all five were collaborations with Leonard Weisburg: Red Light, Green Light (1944), Little Lost Lamb (1945) - a 1946 Caldecott Honor book, Little frightened tiger (1953), and Whistle for the train (1956).

Who was Leonard Weisgard?

Leonard Weisgard was the only child of Samuel and Fanny Weisgard, born on December 13, 1916 in New Haven, Connecticut.  He spent much of his young life in England, where his father was from, before the family moved back to the U.S. when he was 8 years old. 

After returning to America, Weisgard was disappointed with the books given to him at school.  He didn't like the illustrations and found them dull.  That was when his interest in illustrations began.

He studied art at the Pratt Institute and the New School For Social Research, both in New York City.  Weisgard then went on to study dance with Martha Graham before finding work as a window dresser at Macy's.  

His first illustrations appeared in such magazines as Good Housekeeping,  The New Yorker, and Harper's Bazaar.  

Weisgard  used many different techniques and colors in his illustrations, including poster paint, crayon, chalk, pen and ink, and stenciling.  Among his influences were primitive cave paintings, Gothic and Renaissance art, and avant-garde French illustrators of children's books of the 1920s.

His first book, Suki, the Siamese Pussy, was published in 1937, followed by an adaptation of Cinderella.

Weisgard went on to illustrate over 200 hundred books, including 23 titles he wrote himself and several collaborations with Margaret Wise Brown.  Besides the books I listed early, they also worked together on the popular The Noisy Book series: The Noisy Book Treasury (Dover Children's Classics).  For his complete bibliography, please check out Leonard Weisgard's website.

In 1951, Weisgard married Phyllis Mennot.  The Weisgards worked together often, creating set and costume designs, Leonard drew sketches while Phyllis made patterns.  They did several for the San Francisco Ballet, including The Nutcracker.

In 1969, the Weisgards and their three children moved to Denmark.  This was where he lived until his death on January 14, 2000.

The Illustrations

The Little Island is the story of, well, a little island.  This island sits in the ocean, seemingly all by itself.  Wind blows around it, birds fly over, fish swim past as tides rise and fall, and fog rolls in.  Spring arrives with spiders building webs and small flowers of white and blue and violet blooming.  Lobsters crawl in from the sea and seals lie on the sunny rocks with their babies.

This is my favorite illustration, I love the *pop* of white with the young seal pup in the middle of all the browns and greens.

 Kingfishers building their nests, gulls laying their eggs, and wild strawberries popping up mark the beginning of summer.

The illustration of the kingfishers is the brightest illustration in the book.

Then one sunny day, a little black cat comes to the island with his people for a picnic and the kitten is surprised by how small the island is.

The island, in return, points out how tiny the kitten is.  The kitten responds that he is part of the big world, but when the island tries to say he is too, the kitten disagrees, pointing out that the island is cut off from the land.  The island tells the kitten to ask any fish, which the kitten does.

"Answer me this or I'll eat you up," said the kitten.

The fish explains that "all land is one land under the sea" and that if the kitten would go into the water with him, he would show him.  The kitten explains he can't swim, so the fish says he must take it on faith that he is right.  When the kitten asked what faith was, the fish defined it as "To believe what I tell you about what you don't know."

The cat believed the fish and let him go before returning to his boat and sailing away.

Once again, the little island was alone with his seven big trees, seventeen small bushes, and one big rock.  And night came, bringing seven fireflies and a bat, waking the owl.

A storm blew in as days turned from summer to autumn to winter.  And the little island sat alone in the ocean.

The Little Island was laid out with color illustrations on the right hand page and the text on the left.  Several pages had black and white illustrations surrounding the text.

The Little Island is a sweet, though not necessarily memorable, book. I love how the fish explains faith to the kitten and I really enjoy how Weisgard uses pops of color to show a baby seal among adult seals or a wild strawberry, bright red in a field of green.

One final note: Leonard Weisgard won the 1947 Caldecott Medal and one of his other books was a 1947 Honor book as well.

1947 Caldcott Honor Books
Rain Drop Splash illustrated by Leonard Weisgard, written by Alvin Tresselt The Boats on the River illustrated by Jay Hyde Barnum, written by Marjorie Flack Timothy Turtle. illustrated by Tony Palazzo, written by Al Graham Pedro: The Angel of Olvera Street by Leo Politi Sing in Praise: A Collection of the Best Loved Hymns illustrated by Marjorie Torrey, text selected by Opal Wheeler