Rotten Island is another book written by by William Steig, the author of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, that we are really enjoying. With bright and colorful illustrations that stimulate imagination, this book has been a big hit with my four year olds.

Rotten island is an ugly place where ugly, nasty creatures live. They are always fighting with each other, spitting fire at each other and dining on each other. The whole island, including its inhabitants, freezes at night and unfreezes again in the morning. And the fighting, biting, hating, dining, etc resume among its inhabitants in the morning. One day, something beautiful happens which scares the inhabitants because they have not experienced anything like this before. What follows is a full fledged war that leads to a cycle of destruction and recreation.