My Kind of Deeply Spiritual Children’s Book 🏝️

The Little Island

Read-aloud on Youtube (esp from 2:19 - 4:00)

I love how direct and present this book is. I can feel how it comes from a different place, being with things as they are without judgement, transmitting a timeless, deep understanding of how we’re both unique and one, saying it both directly and metaphorically at the same time, without needing to be pedantic. Here’s a key part, where a kitten is conversing with a little island:

“Maybe I am a little Island too,” said the kitten—“a little fur Island in the air.” And he left the ground and jumped in the air.

“That is just what you are,” said the little Island.

“But I am part of this big world,” said the little kitten. “My feet are on it.”

“So am I,” said the little Island.

“No, you’re not,” said the kitten. “Water is all around you and cuts you off from the land.”
“Ask any fish,” said the little Island .

[ … the kitten catches and threatens a fish … ]

“And the fish told the kitten how all land is one land under the sea.”

[...]

“And it was good to be a little Island. A part of the world and a world of its own all surrounded by the bright blue sea.”

Also apparently the author Margaret Wise Brown was a radical woman, waaay ahead of her time (she was born in 1910).

With love, Jordan