Little Island Books

A groundbreaking memoir about growing up mixed-race in Ireland, by the Irish Book Award-winning author and media personality Leon Diop.

Mixed-race experience in Ireland has never been described so honestly. Diop, a charismatic public figure and strong positive male role-model for young Irish people, tells his story from his first day as the only brown boy in school to his powerful recent experience reconnecting with his African roots in Senegal.

Growing up, Diop struggled with his identity, got into trouble, and lost his way, before turning his life around and finding his mission: helping Black and mixed-race Irish people tell their own stories. He founded Black & Irish and developed it into an advocacy group, a podcast with RTÉ, and an award-winning book (published by Little Island in 2023).

Now it is Diop’s turn to tell his own story, his journey from mixed-up kid to embracing his own identity, one that will inspire young people and help counter dangerous political narratives in Ireland today.

Irish rugby legend Gordon D'Arcy and bestselling author Paul Howard deliver a thrilling, interactive story that puts young readers at the center of a rugby final – while teaching them the basic skills of the game along the way.

Hands-on and fully interactive, Let’s Play Rugby! encourages all kids to give rugby a go – in their bedrooms, living rooms and gardens. This book puts the young reader in the boots of a rugby player as they play in the big final!

Jog on the spot! Do some star jumps! Then face off against your opponents in the game of your life.

This fully illustrated picture book is one for children and grown-ups to tackle together.

Oleg’s new camera is definitely not ordinary. It has no instructions and no buttons, but it seems to know exactly what Oleg wants it to do. When Oleg goes on a camping trip with his friends, Rory and Daria, they soon discover the camera’s most special function – Dino Mode. Now, with dinosaurs of all sizes running about the campsite and a nosey professor poking around, Oleg and his friends commence Operation Hide the Dinos.

A YA verse novel about LGBTQ+ desire, identity — and vampires.

From the multi-award winning author of The Deepest Breath (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), a Junior Library Guild Selection.

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.
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.

You’re caught in a time loop and there’s only one way out. You have to call out your best friend.

Kirkus Reviews: Best Young Adult Books of the Year 2023

Chicago Public Library, “Best of the Best Books 2023”

Spence hates Anthony’s sexist jokes, but he never says anything. Anthony’s his buddy, and Spence doesn’t have many. One Friday, Spence finds Anthony assaulting their classmate, Clara Hart, at a party. Clara flees from the house, is hit by a car, and dies. But the next day, it’s Friday again and Clara is alive. Caught in a time-loop, Spence finds himself living the same 24 hours on repeat. Can he change Clara’s fate? And what if it’s not that simple?

A funny philosophical romp about a group of kids who use the power of critical thinking to take on a wicked headmaster.

Milo is thrilled to be starting at the country’s most prestigious school. But it soon becomes clear that something sinister is going on. The headmaster, Dr Pummelcrush, is bent on brainwashing the students and turning them into mindless, unthinking human robots.

When Milo stumbles across a bright and colourful secret garden and meets its joyous gardener, he and his friends begin to open their minds to a whole new way of thinking: philosophy. Can the Philosophy Resistance Squad use their new questioning skills to resist Pummelcrush’s evil project and save their classmates from being zombified?

Kirkus Reviews, “Best Teens and YA Books of 2023”

Bank Street Best Children's Books 2024

2024 USBBY Outstanding International Books

A feminist retelling of favourite Irish fairytale The Children of Lir.

Aífe marries Lir, a chieftain with four children by his previous wife. Jealous of his affection for his children, the witch Aífe turns them into swans for 900 years. Retold through the voice of Aífe, Savage Her Reply is unsettling and dark, yet nuanced in its exploration of the guilt of a complex character.

A Raven Award Winning Irish author's North American debut. A moving YA novel about mental illness and recovery. 

18-year-old Saoirse can’t wait to leave school – but just before the final exams her ex-boyfriend dies by suicide. Everyone blames Saoirse – even Saoirse herself, who cheated on him with his best friend. She is shunned by her schoolmates and suffers unbearable levels of anxiety, which her useless counsellor does nothing to alleviate.

On the night of the prom, everything becomes too much and Saoirse makes a decision that lands her in a psychiatric hospital. Slowly, painfully, with the support of a friendly hospital cleaner, her old best friend, her kind and hilarious grandmother, and even her irritating sister, Saoirse regains hope of finding herself again.

A brave and simple story, written in the alternating voices of its two heroines, this is a touching story of the redemptive power of friendship from an award-winning author.

The last thing either Jana (13) or Louise (17) is looking for on this hot and boring summer is a friend of totally the wrong age. But then one day, they abandon their responsibilities and irritating families, and head off in a ‘borrowed’ car for a day by the lake. Their adventure is simple — beer, ice-cream, swimming, singing — but the friendship it forges between them turns out to be profound. When Jana experiences loss, it is only Louise’s tender and funny postcards that can haul her out of depression — right out of her bedroom window and off on another adventure.

An illustrated romp of a story about a disastrous superhero family. Sequel to The Powers.

Pucker Power centres on the adventures of Pucker, the Power family’s mutt of a pug-dog. After he is dognapped, along with a beautiful French poodle, the Powers must follow the clues through Dublin, Paris and St Petersburg to bring their beloved pup back home.

It’s 1921. Ireland has been at war with Britain for two years. When Polly’s brother Leo returns from war, it’s like he’s turned into a different person. After he turns violent, Polly runs away to Helen’s Hope hostel in Belfast, where Catholic and Protestant girls live and work together while around them Ireland is at war with itself. But some people hate Helen’s Hope because of what it stands for. How can a few girls stand up to hatred — when some of it comes from within their own walls? And when the hostel is violently attached, how can Polly keep hope alive?

New York Public Library, Best Children's Books of 2024 List

He tells his next-door friend Joshua about the Shy Town, and they set off, with Senan’s grandmother in a ramshackle wheelchair, to find this elusive place. Along the way they make friends with Paperboy. Who is, as you’d expect, a boy made of paper. 

With the help of a kruckle (a sort of Shy Town creature) that they meet on their journey, they find the Shy Town, only its real name is Perfection, because it is absolutely perfect.

But all is not well in Perfection: the inhabitants are constantly worrying about making it more and more perfect.

 But since more perfect than perfect is an impossibility, they are constantly exhausted. What can Senan and friends do to save the kruckles from their obsession with perfection?

Bank Street Best Children's Books 2024

Written by the newly-appointed Laureate na nÓg (Ireland’s Children’s Literature Laureate)

A gripping high-concept speculative middle-grade novel from the award-winning author of Bumpfizzle, the Best on Planet Earth and The List

Aria lives on a well-ordered planet whose people have eradicated illness and even death. Earth is their ‘shadow planet’ which they populated with humans centuries ago so they could study them and learn from their experiences.

Now the experiment is coming to an end and Aria must go to Earth with her scientist father to set off a train of events which will destroy its people. Brought up to believe that humans are inferior, Aria is shocked to discover that she is herself half human, and amazed to find that Earth-dwellers live life to the full and feel love for each other, even though they are mortal.

But once she understands this, how can she save them, and herself, from destruction?

Canadian teenager Evie Wilder just found out she’s a werewolf. Now her mom’s gone missing, she and her sister Kate have to go into hiding, and there’s not a single helpful vampire slayer to be found.

With the help of Kevin, the dorky-hot manager of the guesthouse where she and Kate lie low, Evie starts to harness her wolfish side. But Kevin seems to know a suspicious amount about vampires…

Meanwhile, animal attacks are increasing, local teens are going missing, and Evie is about to find herself at the centre of a supernatural showdown.

Dystopian fiction meets classic adventure in this tale of twin brothers travelling to forbidden islands in search of gold.

Esper and Starn are twin boys who live in a grim world that has been almost laid waste by massive volcanic explosions.

When the boys discover an intriguing old manuscript in a locked room in their apartment, which tells of gold on one of the forbidden islands the people can see from the coastline, they determine to go on gold-hunt. They manage to construct a glider that takes them far from their home territory, and so begins a whole new adventure for the boys, as they travel from island to island in search of gold, but they are about to discover that the quest for gold is not what they expect.

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.

A fast-paced adventure story full of heart, courage – and horses.

Ella and Johnny are distraught when Johnny's horse Storm disappears from his field. Johnny knows that he has been taken by 'the pound man'. Ella and Johnny aren't going to let Storm go that easily, but it means hatching with a daring plan to rescue him.

A new translation of Ireland's national epic myth by award-winning author and Irish language expert Alan Titley.

When Queen Maeve’s army marches north to steal the Brown Bull of Cooley, the leaders of Ulster are cast under a sleeping spell.

Just one boy comes out to face the warrior queen and her invading Connacht horde. A lad who has sworn to protect his homeland like a guard dog: the hero Cúchulainn. He’s only a beardless youth against an army of men, but when he twists into his war-form, Cúchulainn is the fiercest fighter in Ireland.

This is Irish legend as you haven’t read it before.

Mik flees a living nightmare, hoping his journey will lead him home.

Mik has been skating on thin ice his entire life. When he is forced to leave his new home with his aunt Lena, he leaves behind icy northern Sweden and all his new friends, and his life becomes a living nightmare. Through forests and along train lines, over rapids and waterfalls, Mik is determined that nothing will stop him from finding home at last.

A chosen boy falls into the fantastical world of ancient Irish myth and must use his powers to save his family.

Oisín is not sure he wants to be Keeper of the Book of Magic – but when his little sister Sorcha is kidnapped by the Morrígan, a raven-goddess with a heart as dark as her feathers, he has to learn how to use the Book for good and save his sister.

Award-winning first instalment of the Wolfstongue Saga by Booker Prize-longlisted author Sam Thompson

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.

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?

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

A warm and loving story about how a non-binary person comes to understand and accept themselves by an award-winning queer author.

Every morning, when Annie’s moms open up their bookshop, there’s a pile of books on the counter, waiting for the right reader to come and find them.

But one day, there’s a book nobody comes for. Nobody ever comes, and each day the book gets lonelier, and the bookshop becomes an unhappy place. Who can the book be for, and why don’t they come?

Eventually, the book finds the reader who needs it: Annie’s sister, Charlotte. Charlotte asks the family to call her Charlie now, and to use ‘they/them’ pronouns.

The bookshop cheers up. Customers start buying books again.

The first book in the Primrose Leary trilogy from the multi-awarding author of Tangleweed and Brine.

Primrose Leary has just started high school. Likes: her pet rat, Roderick; her best friend, Joel; being a little bit different (but not in the weird different sense – she wouldn’t like to be the only bald girl in her class or the only girl who always smelled of ham, or anything). Dislikes: living with Fintan (her moustachioed dad); the boy-school that Joel’s toddled off to without her; not having her mum around any more.

Four very short stories about the everyday life of a little girl and her mom, perfect for bedtime reading.

Alexandra’s adventures include changing her name, bedtime fears and a plaster disaster. In each story, Alexandra's mum helps her to learn about herself and the world by allowing her to make her own discoveries.

How far would you go to fit in?

17-year-old Drew has just won a scholarship to Cooke's Academy, an elite high school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He's the first in his neighbourhood to be accepted, and his family and community couldn't be prouder. Especially because going there gives Drew a shot at a valuable college scholarship. But the pressure at Cooke's Academy is intense, and Drew isn't sure he fits in.

When Adam, leader of the toxic Stewards club, a privileged group of students who control everything that goes on at the school, invites Drew to join, Drew realises that if he can just play by the rules for long enough, he will have a shot at the scholarship.

Wealthy, popular Charlotte seems to have everything going for her, but she struggles with the expectations heaped on her by her family and the school. Meanwhile, her ex-boyfriend Adam is terrorising her with a video of them having sex.

As the friendship between Drew and Charlotte grows, both begin to come into their own through a growing love of Spanish poetry, poetry slams, and drag. A school trip to Spain brings them closer together, and pushes them further than ever from who they used to be.

An unflinching verse novel about a teenage boy who is sexually assaulted in an attack he struggles to remember by the award-winning author of Gut Feelings 

Kirkus Best Teen & YA Verse Novels 2024

Jay wakes in a park, beaten and bruised. He can’t remember what happened the night before. But he has suspicions. Jay realises he has been raped — and that his ex-boyfriend may have been involved. Counselling sessions cause Jay to question everything. His new friend Rain encourages his pursuit of justice. Jay wants answers, but his search will lead him down a perilous path. Once the trigger is touched you can't tell who to trust.

 A hilarious and heart-warming story about a boy with ADHD who is transformed into a dinosaur.

Rory is having a weird week. A really weird week. He has been turned into a ridiculous, small, feathered dinosaur. Pretty awkward. Rory can’t use a human toilet. He can’t hold a video game controller in his little dino claws. His breath smells really bad. And his new carnivore body can’t stop craving sausages.

Rory finally gets his friends to take his embarrassing situation seriously, and together they embark on Operation Make Rory Human Again. But it's not easy. Will Rory be stuck as a dinosaur forever?

Can you solve the History Mystery?

Sonia, Pedro and their classmates are baffled. Mysterious messages keep popping up on their computers, on their mobile phones, on websites they visit, even on a radio programme they listen to. It is a voice from the past – but who is trying to contact them from out of history, and why? Follow the clues from their school in modern-day Brazil through the ages to ancient Egypt, to a medieval wizard’s castle laboratory and to the ships that sailed from Europe to discover the New World.

Author Oisín McGann explains Climate Change science, and encourages young people to be part of positive change by getting involved in the global movement to fight humanity’s biggest challenge. This book does not sugarcoat the current climate change crisis, but nor is it all doom and gloom. It gives young people a route to positive change, without putting too heavy a burden on their shoulders.

Relentless negative news stories about Climate Change are a source of anxiety for many young people, while others simply disengage from what seems like a hopeless situation. This book presents an optimistic, hopeful vision of a world engaged in a huge collective effort to build a better, more sustainable future for everyone. Published in collaboration with Friends of the Earth Ireland. Vegan inks, sustainably produced with all recycled materials and fully recyclable: this book is part of the solution.

A whimsically illustrated picture book about robots, space, and the power of love.

‘Missing Roald Dahl? Need a book where bad kids are just bad and they get their comeuppance? This is the book for you.’ –  Read and Reviewed

Absurdly enjoyable dark adventure about a boy's mission to stop his evil sisters terrorising the town

Indigo McCloud’s sister Peaches is every adult's favourite child: pretty, golden-haired, polite and charming. But the children of Blunt know better: Peaches and her three sisters are a gang of bullies who will stop at nothing to get their way.

This is the story of Indigo’s battle to stop his sisters. Leaping across the rooftops of Blunt, he tries to keep one step ahead of their wicked schemes –but he has to tangle with 437 hungry geese, an avalanche of toilets, curry farts, bungling policemen, vicious eels, a pig in a witch's hat, a three legged spider with a toilet brush and a dangerous villain in odd socks …

Billy Brown is good at maths but bad at sports. When the Queen is struggling with a maths problem, it's Billy's time to shine!

Only Billy Brown can help the Queen with her difficult maths problem, and she gives him a big gold medal. But when the Queen then comes to stay with Billy's family everything begins to get royally awkward. Then there's Billy's grandma, who used to be a spy ... A right royal riot of a read!

When Martin Ryan sees a video of his father flying unaided through the air, he realises everything he believed about his life has been a lie.

Now his parents have disappeared and Martin discovers something weird brewing in the disused mines of the seaside village where he lives. Something glowing. Something ... egg-like.

Someone's definitely been messing with reality. Martin and his friends must do whatever they can to defeat the aliens that threaten the entire human race. Even if it means stealing cop cars, blowing up the mines and turning a paddling pool into a fighter aircraft. 

A moving and sensitive children’s book exploring a child's experience living in refugee accommodation in Ireland.

School Library Journal, “Best Books 2023”

Bank Street Best Children's Books 2024

Azari’s life has been split in two and the halves are as different as lemons and mangoes. Running links the two parts of her life: sometimes when she runs it is because she wants to, because she feels strong and free. But sometimes it is because she has no other choice. 

When Azari and her mother flee for their lives to Ireland they are put in a centre for asylum seekers. They must share a room with a stranger, eat food they don’t know the name of and answer intrusive questions from authorities. Azari's life has secrets. Will she ever be able to stop running?

An black Iraq war veteran and an Iraqi-American Muslim teenager form an unlikely friendship through their shared love of John Coltrane. A supreme coming-of-age story of friendship, forgiveness — and jazz.

Tariq is is a young Iraqi-American Muslim man, beset by danger on the streets and conflict at home. Music is his only consolation. When he forms a friendship with the volatile but intriguing record-store owner and Iraq war veteran, Jamal, Tariq discovers the world of jazz — and the man he could become.

Jamal is exciting, eloquent, and troubled. He suffers from PTSD, is always on edge. Tariq wants to learn from Jamal's knowledge of music, but can he afford to get close to this volatile veteran?

Ros has finally found Eddy, the girlfriend they’ve always wanted. But Ros can’t tell her the truth: that they are trans, and want to live in a male body.

At a party Ros’s classmates “discover” they’re a lesbian – but that’s not the true story. As Ros’s life gets ever harder to navigate, a new friendship with a boy changes everything and Ros confides in him. Once the truth is out, things take on a momentum that Ros can’t control.

Ros is surprised that their school turns out to be supportive of their identity. But what’s the next move?  And what will happen when Eddy finds out?

Hard-hitting urban drama about friendship, family and loss from the author of Things I Know. 

Kirkus Starred Review

Matt’s mom left home when he was 10. He writes letters to her but doesn’t send them. He keeps them in his Gone Book, which he hides in his room. Five years of letters about his life. Five years of hurt. Matt’s dad won’t talk about her. His older brother is mixed up with drugs and messing with dangerous characters. His friends, Mikey and Anna, are the best thing in his life, but Matt keeps pushing them away. All Matt wants to do is skate, surf, and forget. But now his mom is back in town and Matt knows he needs to find her, to finally deliver the truth.

For fans of Brian Conaghan.

A celebration of Irish Traveller identity.

All the children at school have to bring something from home to show the class. Sonny doesn't know what to bring - will the other children laugh at him if he brings in a horseshoe? When Uncle Jim takes Sonny on a trip in his wagon, he tells Sonny stories around the campfire. He shows him how he works metal in the traditional way and takes him to a horse fair. Watching Jim, Sonny starts to feel better about where he comes from. Now he can't wait to tell everyone at school all about being an Irish Traveller, and to share their rich and distinctive cultural history and traditions.

The story of a school shooting and its awful aftermath; a psychologically convincing study of grief, loss and guilt and their effects on young lives

Miriam is an ordinary schoolgirl with a carefree bunch of friends, and she’s just embarked on her first relationship with her sweet and loving boyfriend Toby. She lives with her dad and she has a good relationship with her grandparents. All this ordinary happiness is shattered when one of Miriam’s schoolmates comes to school with a handgun and kills several pupils and teachers. Miriam’s beloved Toby is shot right in front of her. Miriam and her surviving friends are distraught. Shock, grief, bereavement, terror – Miriam and her friends run the gamut of emotions in the days, weeks and months following the shooting. But the worst emotion of all is guilt. ‘Is it our fault?’ is the haunting question that tortures Miriam as she tries to piece her life together again.

The story of a young girl caught between the Easter Rising, the outbreak of World War 1 and a divided Ireland

Belfast in 1916. Fourteen-year-old Helen is shaped by her mixed background – rural, Catholic Irish values from mum Kathleen; urban, Protestant Ulster ones from dad James. Her parents are relaxed in their politics but others in the family circle are more extreme – Aunt Violet is a die-hard anti-Home Ruler, more British than the king, while Uncle Sean is staunchly nationalist. These are the parents of Helen’s older cousins: Sandy, who joined the army straight from school and has already seen action in France, and Michael, who runs away from home to enlist. But before he leaves for France, Michael is deployed to Dublin to help quell the Rising, where he’s expected to open fire on his fellow Irishmen. Who and what are they fighting for?

A gripping summer adventure about found families, trust, and truth. And chameleons.

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

Connie will never forget the day her dad went to buy her a cup of hot chocolate at an airport café – and never came back. That was eight years ago.

Connie loves her foster-mum, Mags, but longs o find her dad again. When a mysterious letter appears, she vows to track him down with the help of her new friend, a fearless fossil-hunting boy called Thyo. Soon Connie is on a plane with her pet chameleon, Hue, on the most exciting, and scariest, journey of her life.