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, beautifly flower begins to grow.…


"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