Rotten Island

Here's how this book begins: "There once was a very unbeautiful, very rocky, rotten island. It had acres of sharp gravel and volcanoes that belched fire and smoke, spewed hot lava, and spat poison arrows and double headed toads". Think about double headed toads flying through the air. Let your imagination run wild. Trust me, nothing you can conjure up will prepare you for what you will encounter in reading this masterpiece by William Steig. For instance, "The insects there could get as big as barracudas - goggle-eyed with chopping mandibles, bug-eyed and hairy, with stinging tails and clacking shells covered with grit and petrified sauerkraut". And there they are; illustrated in grotesque and intricate detail, in psychedelic colors (the book was originally published in 1969). And yes, there is one perched precariously on a prickly cactus, whose body is indeed encrusted with what appears to be petrified sauerkraut. Or, "The denizens of this sizzling-hot, freezing-cold, rocky rotten island were monsters - huge or miserably stunted, fat or scraggly, dry or slimy, with scales , warts, pimples, tentacles, talons, fangs, extra arms, eyes, legs, tails, and even heads, all in ridiculous arrangements". And there it is - a bristling menagerie all decked out and endlessly interesting to examine close up. And then again, "This rotten, horrible island was set in a boiling sea seething with serpents, sharp-clawed crabs, stingrays, electric eels of high voltage, and eerie fish with pointed teeth, barbed fins and scales, and fluorescent lights that glimmered in the bubbling deep". By now you're beginning to get the idea... All these assorted nasties dine on one another and engage in unending acts of vainglorious cruelty, interrupted only by the onset of night when everything freezes and the combatants are entombed in ice till morning comes again. Given their nature, and knowing nothing else they are happy: "They loved their rotten life. They loved hating and hissing at one another, taking revenge, tearing and breaking things, screaming, roaring, caterwauling, venting their hideous feelings. It tickled them to be cruel and to give each other bad dreams. Rotten Island was their paradise". Then one day everything changes. A beautiful and mysterious flower is discovered. Something like this has never been seen before and the inhabitants of Rotten Island find it scary and repulsive. More flowers appear in spite of the frustrated efforts of a hairy grapling to discover their origin. Ultimately the beauty that has invaded the island via the flowers drives the indigenous creatures mad and they destroy one another in a furious final battle. Rain begins to fall, washing the island and making all things new. In the morning everything is covered with beautiful flowers, the sea is calm and a rainbow fills the sky. Exotic shrubbery bursts from the peaks of the volcanoes that once spewed double headed toads. A flock of birds swoops in to populate what has now truly

William Steig, now 93, made his foray into children's literature late, in 1968. By then, he had already been drawing cartoons and illustrations for the New Yorker for 38 years. And it was by no means certain that his launch into children's books, where large numbers of titles die each year, would succeed. The late great New Yorker illustrator Arthur Getz, who in 50 years produced 213 of the magazine's covers, for example, created only four children's books, all of them now sadly out of print. But Steig became as prolific at children's books as he had been with adult humor. This book exemplifies the praise that critic James E. Higgins lavished on Steig in Children's Literature and Education. He compared Steig to Isaac Bashevis Singer, E. B. White and select others whose work "reaches beyond the specific confines of a child audience." Steig, he wrote, shows an unusual childlike capacity to present incidents of wonder as if they happened every day--and an "essence of childhood which no adult can afford to give up or to deny."The color and imagination in this 1969 volume places it at the pinnacle of Steig's children's collection. It reappeared in 1984 and again more recently. Unlike most of his children's books, the story offers no characters. Set in a boiling sea, the vile landscape that dominates it spouts fire, smoke, poison arrows, double-headed toads and hot lava. Even the plant life here sprouts horrible thorns and twisted spines. It thrives in an environment of hourly earthquakes, black tornadoes, lightening sprees, cyclones and dust storms, which freezes at night. The creatures inhabiting this place appear equally grotesque. The serpents, sharp-clawed crabs, stingrays, high-voltage electric eels and other scaly, wart-covered denizens sport talons, tentacles, fangs, extra arms and eyes, armor, rusty nails and wheels for legs. The insects appear bug-eyed and hairy, covered in grit and petrified sauerkraut. No two are alike--except for their equal vanity, jealousy and delight in greeting one another with spit or shooting flames. Others' pain induces them to shake with laughter. Cruelty tickles them. They live in hatred--hissing, screaming, caterwauling and otherwise venting their hideous feelings.Aside from showing children the hyperbolic worst likely to come of ill will and a venomous temper, what makes this book wonderful is the way in which this Paradise of hatred disintegrates and transforms into something beautiful. Alyssa A. Lappen

This is a great book, and there is nothing else like it -- certainly not by anyone else, but it is also unique in the Steig canon. The comparison to Sendak's *Where the Wild Things Are* below is apt; both books deal with economies of human destructiveness, but Steig's wonderfully imagined, very funny, full-blooded account of unbridled cruelty burning itself out makes Sendak's book (fine as it is) seem timid and stagey in comparison. I first bought this book over ten years ago as a single, childless adult; I have never tired of it, and now my two boys -- age 5 & 7 -- haven't either. Buy it.

I am so glad to see this book back in print. I've checked it out of the library so many times I'm afraid one of these days they won't let me check it out again. Even though my children are beyond the "picture book" years, William Steig's books remain on our shelves to read and enjoy again and again. They are smart,amusing and never condesceding. Rotten Island is a treasure!

Last year this was the only thing my six year old wanted for Christmas. The book is a delight to read and the illustrations are rich enough to entertain for many readings (if my son's experience is typical for many, many readings). The funny thing was that I enjoyed the book so much I din't mind. I discovered the book at the library and I've never seen it for sale at a book store. The subject is unusual in that it is about a "very unbeautful, very rocky, rotten island" where the creatures who dwell there "loved hating and hissing at one another, taking revenge, tearing and breaking things, screaming, roaring, caterwauling, venting their hideous feelings." I'm sorry to see that this book is not often mentioned with Steigs other classics. It is a treasure.