 | |
| Author | Anne Parrish |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Anne Parrish |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Published | 1930 |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 265 |
| OCLC | 1654627 |
Floating Island is a 1930 children's novel written and illustrated by Anne Parrish. A China-doll family's shipwreck and adventure in the Floating Island are told in the novel in the simple and colloquial style.
A China-Doll family happily lives in a dollhouse at a toy shop reading books and dancing "The Waltz of the Dolls" with the piano accompaniment of Mrs. Doll.
One day, Henry purchases the dollhouse and the dolls for his niece, Elizabeth, and the dolls are wrapped, put inside a box, and sent to the tropics, where Elizabeth lives. En route, the dolls wreck on a ship, and they drift to an uninhabited tropical island with their dollhouse.They gradually adapt to the island and become familiar with the native animals.
At the end of the story, Mrs. Doll proposes leaving Floating Island, because "dolls need children, and children need dolls". They raise a signal fire, which is spotted by a sailor.
The story concludes by asking readers whether or not they have the doll and "If you think they are, will you tell me?"
The Horn Book Magazine described Floating Island as "... one of those books so whimsically compounded that its like happens rarely." and went on "There are many people who can write a fine story of adventure, history or everyday life, but how many can write an Alice or a Story of Dr. Dolittle? It is this last kind of book which Anne Parrish has made." [1]
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