Genre: survival story
Honors
and Awards: Newbery Honor, 1977
Review: The story of a foppish mouse, Abelard Hassam di Chirico Flint (Abel, for short), who, while on a picnic with his wife, is swept away from a life of leisure and into the adventure of a lifetime. Abel ends up being stranded on an uninhabited island, where he must learn to become self-sufficient, eating wild foods and building his own shelter. As the days turn into weeks, and the weeks into months, Abel despairs of ever seeing his wife or family again, yet he goes through a process of immense self-discovery. When, after a year of being stranded, Abel is able to leave the island, he is a new and changed mouse.
Opinion: While I am a huge fan of William Steig's picture books, and enjoyed Abel's Island, I have a somewhat hard time picturing to whom I might recommend this book. As with Steig's other books, the vocabulary is rich and varied, which works well when an adult is reading the book to a child, but independent readers might be stymied by some of the less common words (equinoctial anyone?).
Ideas: I see this book best used as a serial read aloud in a classroom or library.
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