Little Island Books

Discover the science in everyday life and explore how the world works with scientist Dr. Shane Bergin!

Ever wondered how boats float? Or which birds gather in your garden? Do you know what makes the perfect cake a perfect cake? Or how to make your own musical instrument?

When Luke and Ruby head to Nanny and Grandad’s house for their mid-term break, they discover their grandparents’ old science notebooks. But it turns out that science isn’t just about blowing things up! With the help of Nanny and Grandad, they discover the role science plays in the world around them, whether that be birdwatching, telephone making, plant growing and beyond. They write all of it down in their new science notebook. But what about the reader? Shouldn’t they be doing this stuff too? Dr Shane thinks so.

Interspersed between Luke and Ruby’s cozy scientific adventures, is the reader’s very own ‘how to’ science notebook. Filled with facts, hints and suggestions it encourages our young scientists to roll up their sleeves and give Luke and Ruby’s experiments a go. Readers will be immersed in a world of science and discovery that is accessible right on their doorstep.

Have you ever wondered how leprechauns came to be in Ireland?

The Travellers lived happily, travelling from place to place, until one day the bad king and queen arrived in Ireland.

The king of the Travellers, and his grandchildren run away to the woods. There they meet the lovely fairy queen, who turns all the Travellers into leprechauns so they can hide from the bad queen’s soldiers.

A tale rooted in the oral tradition of the Irish Traveller community, by beloved storyteller Chrissy Donoghue Ward.

From the multi-award winning author of The Deepest Breath (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), a Junior Library Guild Selection, comes a YA verse novel about LGBTQ+ desire, identity — and vampires.

The blood
Feeds the hunger
That threatens everything

It starts when Claudia offers her a yellow rose.
Immy has been in love before – many times, across many lifetimes. But never as deeply, as intensely as this. Claudia smells like paint and peppermint tea. She wears her hair in a plait, and has a green thumb, and Immy is utterly besotted. Claudia has never been in love like this either. But then, this is her first time with a vampire. But a love like this can't last. The forbidden thirst for blood runs deep in Immy. And within her mind clamour the voices, of all the others she has been, their desires, and their wrongs.

For fans of Elizabeth Acevdeo and Dean Atta.

2023 USBBY Outstanding International Books

"As in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” the dynamics of oppression and resistance that play out between animals mirror those between humans." The New York Times
"The best animal adventure since Watership Down" — The Times (The Times Children's Book of the Week, July 3rd 2021
"Gripping and profound" — New Statesman
"A hugely original tale" — The Irish Times
"A thrilling adventure" — Meg Rosoff,author of How I Live Now

The children's debut by Booker-longlisted author Sam Thompson is an engrossing, thoughtful, beautifully written story about humans and animals, voice and power, neurodiversity and acceptance.

Inspired by his own experience of having a son with speech difficulties, Wolfstongue is Sam Thompson's first novel for children.

Silas is a young boy who is bullied at school because his words will not come. He wishes he could live in silence as animals do. Deep in the Forest, the foxes live in an underground city built by their wolf slaves. The foxes' leader Reynard controls everything with his clever talk. One day, Silas helps an injured wolf. Then he enters the secret world of the Forest, where the last remaining wolves fight to survive. But even there, language is power. Can Silas find his voice in time to help his wolf friends – can he become the Wolfstongue?

A The Times children's book of the week in 2021

Featured in The Children's Book Council's Disability Pride Month 2025 book list, which recognises and celebrates the activism, joy, and history of the disabled community.

A story about embracing our differences – from the bestselling author of Artemis Fowl.

This is the story of Starr, a girl with dwarfism who lives with her mum and younger sister, Babs. As the girls get older and Babs overtakes Starr’s height, Starr understands there is something different about her. When Starr starts primary school she is at first upset by being shorter than the other children. But with help from her mum and teacher, Starr finds the courage to shine. A fun and gentle story about disability, family and fitting in, told by a major children’s author and illustrated by an artist with dwarfism.

Introduce a new generation to Oscar Wilde’s classic children’s tales with this stunningly illustrated luxury gift edition – a must-have for young readers this Christmas.

Oscar Wilde has enchanted readers young and old alike for over a hundred years. In 1888, he published a collection of bedtime stories for children. This beautiful collection contains six of these classic tales: 'The Selfish Giant', 'The Happy Prince', 'The Devoted Friend', 'The Nightingale & the Rose', 'The Remarkable Rocket' and 'The Young King'.

For the first time, these beloved stories from the great Irish queer author are being published in a major new edition by an Irish publisher. With high-quality paper, a linen-effect cover, gold foil details, a ribbon bookmark and classic binding touches, this keepsake hardback edition, printed and bound in Italy, is crafted to be treasured and shared.

Feeling both classic and fresh, timeless and modern, Lauren O’Hara’s delicate, rich colour illustrations bring this cornerstone of children’s literature to life for readers of all ages.

A beautifully-produced full colour, illustrated hardback poetry book containing poetry on all the seasons for young readers.

From ice creams to Christmas trees, flying grannies to reading mermaids, haiku to rhyming verse, Hopscotch in the Sky takes children on a magical poetic journey through the seasons of the year. Funny and touching, sweet and sharp, these poems are full of life and verve.

Discover the mythical island of Hy Brasil

Fia looks out her window and across the bay. She longs to see the mysterious island, which appears and disappears in the water.One night a moonbeam reaches across the bay and leads her to the island. She walks with magical creatures, dances with a host of girls and boys, and visits the bottom of the sea and the stars in space.

“The Fox’s Tower takes everything you knew, or thought you knew, about nature and the animal kingdom, and turns it on its head.” – Piers Torday, author of The Last Wild trilogy

When Willow witnesses her animal-loving father, Silas, get kidnapped by a group of foxes and a huge wolf-like creature, she pursues them into the woods. There she meets wolves who tell her they know her father. Together they boldly enter the enormous tower the foxes have built deep in the forest. In the tower Willow discovers the dark project of the chief fox, Reynard, to create new life forms from magical clay buried in the Deep Forest where few can enter. To rescue her dad, Willow must brave the Deep Forest and dig deep in herself to foil Reynard's evil scheme to remake the world – but she also finds herself siding with the foxes against their new oppressor, the charismatic but wicked lion Noble.

Girls have the right to play football, wear blue, and aspire to be president! Boys can learn ballet, like hugs and cry when they're sad. A funny, beautifully illustrated and heartwarming list of the rights of boys and girls, presented as a flipbook to be read from either end. Endorsed by Amnesty International.

Girls as well as boys have the right to be scruffy, ruffled, agitated, to choose the job they want, not to be every day princesses, to love who they prefer: boys or girls (or both). Both boys and girls have the right to cry, to play with dolls, to love who they prefer: girls or boys (or both). A fun flipbook about being free to be yourself, and not having to be a gender stereotype, sure to appeal to both boys and girls.

Bewitched retellings of classic fairy-tales with brave and resilient heroines.

A multi-award winning collection of twelve dark, feminist retellings of traditional fairytales from one of Ireland’s leading writers for young people. In the tradition of Angela Carter, stories such as Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin are given a witchy makeover.

The Forest is endless and filled with savage wolves. The human settlement stays safe inside its walls — but two children, Sally and Faolan, long to know what lies beyond. One day a stranger arrives. His name is Reynard: trickster, storyteller, secret-keeper. He can show the children the way through the Forest, but the journey will be more dangerous than they imagine. There are worse things in the world than wolves, and the fox has one final trick to play.

A fictionalised exploration of the childhood of CS Lewis.

Davy, a working-class boy living in East Belfast in 1908, is sent to work at the wealthy Lewis household. When he meets Jacks – the name by which CS Lewis was known to friends and family – Davy is captivated by his friend’s world of books and stories. Together the boys plunge into imagining and adventuring, and Davy discovers his own artistic talent. But when Davy is offered a job at the shipyard, and Jacks’s mother falls gravely ill, their wondrous days of make-believe seem numbered. Will they lose their extraordinary shared world forever?

Come and see our vegetable garden!

See how we work through the seasons to make the plants and flowers grow. We sow seeds in spring, eat berries in summer and pick the apples in the autumn.

Gorgeous colour illustrations show, month by month, how the vegetable garden grows.

A queer love story with a dark magical twist, from an astonishing new Irish voice.

Be careful. The dark is listening.

Hanan is supposed to be dead. The forest outside Skenashogue sent him home alive – but changed. A strange new magic makes every emotion a physical force he can’t control.

Bright and gentle, fox-like Pax is everything Hanan is not. And when he touches Hanan he mutes his secret power, quiets the curse.

To survive their own darknesses they'll need to be honest with each other. But Hanan isn’t sure Pax will like what he finds out…

Can their love help them find their way back to the light?

For fans of Daniel Jose Older.

Beloved Irish poets including:

• Eavan Boland
• Seamus Heaney
• W.B. Yeats
• Paula Meehan
• Thomas Kinsella
• Frank O'Connor
• Gabriel Rosenstock
• Spike Milligan
• Michael Longley
• Áine Ní Ghlinn
• Oscar Wilde
• Pat Ingoldsby
• Brendan Kennelly

•  Nikita Gill
• Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan
• Yeva Skalietska
• Polina Cosgrave

You’ll find thoughtful, surprising and powerful poems here. Poems about love and skateboarding, about feeling lonely and making friends, about jellyfish, magic, school, snowdrops, monsters, blackbirds… and lots, lots more.

Chosen with love by the acclaimed children’s poet Lucinda Jacob and award-winning children’s writer and bookseller Sarah Webb.

A book to treasure now and always.

Gorgeous, zoologically perfect illustrations of Irish wildlife accompanied by scientific facts written in a lighthearted, witty style.

Animals from the air, land and sea are introduced to the reader by Dr Hibernica, an Irish professor who travels the country and knows everything there is to know about Irish wildlife. The spreads are presented in the style of her notebook and field notes, with jokes and sketches throughout. Light-hearted prose by debut author Rob Maguire and exquisite zoologically correct illustrations by Polish–Irish illustrator Aga Grandowicz.

Note for Sales, this is a high priority title

Based on the author's own experience.

Children's Book Council: Spring 2024 Showcase: Reading List: Transformation

This child-centred book focuses on SIDS and helps children and families cope with the loss of a baby. Written by Ireland's first Children's Laureate. Author Siobhán Parkinson's son was five when she experienced a stillbirth. Unable to find any good books to help her son understand the experience, she decided to write her own.

Matthew is excited about the new baby. But then, one day, something very sad happens. The doctor tells Matthew's mother that her baby isn't growing properly and it won't be strong enough to live outside her body. Matthew and his mother and father will always remember their baby. But as time goes by, they will not feel sad so often. This child-centred book is intended to help children and families who experience miscarriage, stillbirth, perinatal death or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).A new edition of the first published book by Siobhán Parkinson. When first published, it was a ground-breaking book.

An USBBY Outstanding International Book 2025

An illustrated own-voices fable about self-acceptance and pride from a member of the Irish Traveller nomadic ethnic minority

Drawn from the Irish Traveller oral storytelling tradition, DeBhairduin’s tale is a gentle allegory about difference, self-acceptance and different ways of seeing the world.

Two slugs travel happily together as brothers, until they meet a crow who shows them that they have no home. Ashamed, one of the slugs decides to make himself a home, and calls himself snail.

The happy slug no longer sees himself through the judging eyes of others, but proudly asserts his place in the world and the two brothers travel happily together once more.

The stories of twenty Irish feminists who rocked the system and changed history, told by one of Ireland's leading writers for young people.

Twenty illustrated essays on Irish women, historical and contemporary, who have defied cultural norms around femininity and achieved great things. The subjects include Irish women from Queen Medb to Eileen Gray, from Constance Markievicz to Sonia O’Sullivan, covering stateswomen, artists, writers, activists and rebels of all kinds.

An anthology of short stories and poems from Ireland's leading children's writers, including Roddy Doyle, John Connolly and Siobhán Parkinson, edited by Eoin Colfer, illustrated by world-renowned artist PJ Lynch. Includes 11 short stories and 6 poems.

Learn how to write stories with Patricia Forde and some of the best middle-grade children's authors.

In this fun and practical illustrated guide, young writers can learn from some of Ireland's most beloved authors, including Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) Catherine Doyle (Twin Crowns), Pádraig Kenny (Stitch) and Derek Landy (Skullduggery Pleasant), and discover how to:

• Find inspiration to start your story
• Craft and develop twisty plots
• Create brilliant characters
• Build spectacular new worlds

Also includes imaginative exercises, accessible explanations of writing terms and engaging illustrations by beloved Irish artist Mary Murphy.

Christmas is coming and Evie is wishing, wishing …

Evie can hardly wait for Christmas to arrive. There is lots of festive fun to be had, from rehearsing for the school play, to decorating the tree, to wrapping presents. As she prepares for the big day with her parents and classmates, she is wishing, wishing, wishing. Suddenly, her wishes begin to come true! Just not in the way she expects. A wish for a reindeer results in a reindeer decoration being found in the attic, a wish for a singing part in her school play sees the whole class (Evie included) all singing along together, and her wish for a white Christmas sees a brief sprinkle of snowfall on Christmas Eve. Her biggest wish of all is fora baby siste, which also partially comes true, in a very surprising way.

A suspenseful teen fantasy about young love, dark mystery and magic.

16-year-old orphan Tom Swinton is not looking forward to spending the summer at his boarding school. So when he receives a strange message from his uncle James, inviting him to visit his Suffolk farm, he jumps at the chance.

However, Tom quickly realises that something is menacing Mundham Farm. But does it come from outside, or within? The mystery deepens when Tom finds old diaries describing a romance with a member of a supernatural race known as the Samdhya.

As the secrets of the farm begin to unravel, pressure mounts, and Tom finds his loyalties under threat. On one hand, he is offered infinite power. On the other, his freedom. Which will he choose?

Sequel to the award-winning The Deepest Breath.

A warm and sensitive dual narrator LGBTQ+ story.

Stevie is about to start junior high. She often feels anxious, but feels much better having her two best friends, Chloe and Andrew, by her side. Their new school is filled with excitement, like the LGBTQIA+ club, but also challenges, such as math class. The biggest challenge of all though comes when Andrew suddenly becomes distant. Andrew isn't quite sure who he is yet. This didn't matter much before, especially when he was hanging out with Stevie and Chloe. Now it seems to matter very much indeed, but he doesn't know how to begin talking about it with his friends, who seem to be much clearer about who they are.

A new book from the author of The List

Praise for Bumpfizzle:

"So hilarious! Patricia Forde is definitely the high queen of Irish comedy." — Eoin Colfer, author of Artemis Fowl 

"Forde’s inventive wordsmithing and her instinct for the ridiculous will have kids in stitches." – The New York Times

Bumpfizzle is an alien sent to Earth on a mysterious mission from Planet Plonk. Or is he a ten-year-old boy who is jealous of all the attention his parents are giving to The Baby? 

Bumpfizzle’s confusion at Earthling behaviours, as reported in his diary and his frequent reports back to Plonk, are hilarious, and his adventures are ridiculous, from eating the cat’s food to biting his teacher (to check if humans would make a good source of food for Plonkers) and attempting to sacrifice a goat. Elina Braslina's playful, Quentin Blake-like illustrations bring Bumpfizzle's adventures on Earth delightfully to life.

An archipelago of eight interconnecting stories and fables filled with the fantastical and a love of the craft of storytelling.

When Nancy’s cat Pangur is stolen by the Faery people, she finds herself striking a deal like no other: she is now the one-and-only storyteller for the Faery Kingdom.

So starts Máire Zepf’s enchanting story collection, reminiscent of fairytales and fables of past and present, but entirely new.

From ghost dragons to magical hats and a dream-weaving giantess, these are tales that awaken the senses and manage to connect with each other in a way reminiscent of 1001 Arabian Nights, perfect for voracious readers and bedtime story consumers alike.