Your Island - (Your Places) by Jon Klassen (Board Book)

About the Book

"With a minimal tableau of familiar objects and a gentle rhythm suited for reading aloud, an island and all its items-a tent, a fire, a boat, a bird-are assembled, ending with bedtime as the sun goes down. This is an island for a young child to have whenever they want to go there. One in a trio of board books focusing on safe spaces, comfort, and imagination, Your Island signals both a departure for Jon Klassen and a story whose peculiar touches of whimsy stamp the book as iconically his."--

Book Synopsis

From the incomparable Jon Klassen, one in a trio of companion board books for the youngest of children

This is your sun.
It is coming up for you.

This is your palm tree.
It can go over by the sun.

With a minimal tableau of familiar objects and a gentle rhythm suited for reading aloud, an island and all its items--a tent, a fire, a boat, a bird--are assembled, ending with bedtime as the sun goes down. This is an island for a young child to have whenever they want to go there. One in a trio of board books focusing on safe spaces, comfort, and imagination, Your Island signals both a departure for Jon Klassen and a story whose peculiar touches of whimsy stamp the book as iconically his.

Review Quotes

In a new series of bedtime board books for children ages 2-5, he has kept the dry humor but skipped the darkness, and the result is pure delight.
--The Wall Street Journal

For 2- to 5-year-olds, where in simple, rhythmic words, Klassen chronicles a given setting and items you find there over the course of a day.
--The Strategist

This book is quietly clever. Its repetition allows for pattern recognition, and the visual cumulative-storytelling subtly reinforces concepts, but, most importantly, it all serves to create a place for the tot perusing its pages to let their imagination run free.
--Booklist (starred review)

Sure to spark the imagination and brimming with whimsy, this deceptively simple bedtime story makes readers an active participant in the process of constructing an entire little world. For children yearning for an island of their own, deadpan delights await in this tale of somnolent creation
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Klassen has crafted three unassuming master classes in picture-book making for the youngest listeners/viewers.
--The Horn Book (starred review)

Klassen's trademark minimalist illustrations and dry humor permeate the island's construction with a quiet charm. . . For young children just starting to explore books, this one offers an enjoyable, calming read that encourages interaction and imagination.
--School Library Journal

About the Author

Jon Klassen is the creator of the #1 New York Times best-selling I Want My Hat Back, which won a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor, and its companions This Is Not My Hat, which won a Caldecott Medal and a Kate Greenaway Medal, and We Found a Hat, named a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of the Year. He is also the author and illustrator of The Rock from the Sky and The Skull, and the illustrator of Extra Yarn, Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, Triangle, Square, and Circle, all by Mac Barnett. Originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Jon Klassen now lives in Los Angeles.