David LaRochelle

author & illustrator

Isle of You

Isle of You

by David LaRochelle
illus­trat­ed by Jaime Kim
Can­dlewick Press, 2018
Ages: Preschool to Grade 2
ISBN: 978–0‑7636–9116‑5

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When you’re feel­ing sad, lone­ly, or angry, there’s a place where you can go to feel bet­ter: the Isle of You. Leave your wor­ries behind and trav­el to where your dreams can come true. From soar­ing on the back of an eagle to relax­ing in a ham­mock to watch­ing danc­ing polar bears on roller skates—if you can imag­ine it, it’s yours!

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Resources

Teach­ers and librar­i­ans: here’s a free down­load­able activ­i­ty guide for Isle of You, includ­ing a short visu­al­iza­tion script. And here’s a sim­ple draw­ing activ­i­ty where kids can cre­ate their own Isle of You.

Isle of You activity
Third graders at Tur­tle Lake Ele­men­tary described their own Isle of You in words and pictures.
Isle of You

Reviews

“A won­der­ful depic­tion of the pow­er of imag­i­na­tion that encour­ages young chil­dren to look inward­ly when faced with life chal­lenges.” (School Library Jour­nal)

“Every page is a dou­ble spread of delights in full col­or using pas­tel water­col­ors with dig­i­tal tools. Chil­dren will love the car­ni­val and cas­tle envi­ron­ments, the roller-skat­ing polar bears in tutus, and the friend­ly ani­mal play­mates. It’s a dream­land of won­ders, a per­fect isle to com­fort angry or sor­row­ful moments in a child’s day.” (Book­list)

“…a love­ly, sooth­ing anti­dote to snap­pish­ness and stress.” (The Guardian)