California: The Magic Island written
& illustrated by Doug Hansen
Doug Hansen has brought a wonderful, magical ABC story to life in California: The Magic Island. It is all about a queen who wants to protect her beloved island named California. Now, this isn’t the state of California. Queen Calafia becomes angry when she hears there is another California and the people of this different place didn’t ask her permission to use the name. She was a reasonable, wonderful queen and was always nice to everyone. She listened as 26 animals fight for the new state of California, and why it is worthy of a name as unique as California.
Beginning with the all-knowing condor and ending with Zoo…She hears all of the pleas for the new land, California. When her judgment, whether or not the lands of California would or wouldn’t be destroyed, the palace chambers were silent. She learned that people in the lands of California, like her Magic Island, persevered and the animals thrived. She learned that the lands were wild, like her island. She learned that there were giant trees called Redwoods, that there are creativeness and uniqueness, just like her island. She ruled that California shall keep its name and no harm shall come to the people of California. She looked at as an honor. An honor because the lands called California was very much like her magic island.
“Doug Hansen was born in Fresno, California, and is the eldest of six children in an artistic family. Doug has worked as a Fresno Bee newsroom artist, freelance illustrator, and cartoonist, and he illustrated David Mas Masumoto’s books Letters to the Valley: A Harvest of Memories and Heirlooms: Letters from a Peach Farmer, as well as Mother Goose in California and Aesop in California. He teaches rendering and illustration at his alma mater, California State University, Fresno. Visit his website at doughansen-art.com.”
This book has many pages and is definitely not one a small child could read to themselves. It reminds me of a book a parent might read as a good-night story. It may even take several nights as the book is quite long. As a parent, I love books and the longer the story is spread out, the more suspense there is to the ending. A parent might even read a letter a night.
Check out California: The Magic Island for yourself.
