Rotten Island

The perfect picture book for rambunctious kids—monsters of all kinds battle it out every day on Rotten Island. But can all that glorious rottenness last forever? “Without question, the monster book of the year.”—Boston Globe

What would happen if every creature on land and sea were free to be as rotten as possible? If every day was a free-for-all; if plants grew barbed wire; if the ocean were poison? That’s life on Rotten Island. For creatures that slither, creep, and crawl (not to mention kick, bite, scratch, and play nasty tricks on each other), Rotten Island is paradise.

But then, on a typically rotten day, something truly awful happens. Something that could spoil Rotten Island forever. Out of a bed a gravel on the scorched earth, a mysterious, beautiful flower begins to grow… This is a wonderfully raucous, fantastically colorful, reminder that nothing rotten lasts forever.

William Steig was a master of the children’s book. Author of Shrek!—the basis for the movie series—and many other beloved and award-winning titles, Rotten Island is Steig at his imaginative best.

Praise for Rotten Island

Without question, the monster book of the year.
Boston Globe

Not since Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are has there been such a glorious nightmare of a book.
People

Stupendous.
The Philadelphia Inquirer

As visually exciting a book as has ever been produced for children.
The Detroit News

What a glorious book! [It] bubbles, almost boils with color.
Washington Post Book World

A gorgeously colored picture book, full of monsters, mayhem and a take-it-or-leave-it message . . . about the redeeming power of Nature.
Newsday

William Steig has been called the “King of Cartoons” for his prolific work at The New Yorker. He drew over 2,600 cartoons and 117 covers for the magazine during his nearly fifty-year career. His children's books, which he began producing in his sixties, include the Caldecott Medal-winning Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and Shrek!, the basis for the animated film series.