Dessert Island - by Ben Zhu (Hardcover)

About the Book

Ben Zhu's Dessert Island is an irresistible picture book about sharing and caring.

Book Synopsis

Ben Zhu's Dessert Island is an irresistible picture book about sharing and caring.

Monkey is on a dessert island. It is made of frosting, berries, and other delicious things.

Fox is on a desert island. It is made of dirt, rocks, and sand.

But as time goes on, their fortunes change, and Monkey and Fox discover that no animal is an island.

This wonderfully layered story has themes of consumption and conservation at its center, and wraps up with a sweet and satisfying ending.

Review Quotes

"This picture-book debut blends poignant themes of sharing and selflessness... a beautiful and universal message of kindness and community." --School Library Journal, starred review

"A page-turner . . . with an ending that is certifiably sweet." --Publishers Weekly

"A guileless parable about having your cake and eating it too." --Kirkus Reviews

"Ben Zhu offers a charming and thoughtful debut about turning lemons into lemonade." --Dan Santat, Caldecott winning author of The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend

"Viewers... will appreciate the spare, repetitive phrasing of the dialogue-only text ("I can't eat one more bite"), and they'll want to try reading the easy words on their own. The main draw, though, are the illustrations, acrylic and colored pencil glowing with sunset colors and toy-store charm..." --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Zhu packs a rich story and message into remarkably few but carefully chosen words." --Booklist

About the Author

Ben Zhu is an illustrator who, after working in the video game industry, founded Gallery Nucleus in 2004, an art gallery and bookshop devoted to illustration, animation, and narrative art with locations in Los Angeles and Portland. Born in Beijing, he moved to the US at age 7 and now lives in Southern California with his wife, daughter, and extremely old pet chow chow. Dessert Island is his first picture book.