Books published by publisher Island Books

See, the thing is, new babies are empty-headed. Total smushfaces, nothing in their brains, and they can't do anything. So, how come Barry's baby sister can draw pyramids? This baby is draining all the knowledge out of Barry's brain - wom, wom, WOM - and his mum's and dad's too. If Barry can't find a way to stop her, she is going to suck out all the stuff in everyone's head and all theirbrains are going to turn to mush. Aaaaaaagh!

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. Written by multi award-winning author and first Laureate na nÓg (Irish Children’s Laureate), Siobhán Parkinson. Perfect for use in schools as well as for leisure reading, this collection celebrates the role of women in Ireland’s changing society.

Tractor is definitely the hero of this story because Tractor can do anything - move mountains, dig swimming pools, act as a guard dog, do the school run, squash traffic jams. What's not to like? Problem is, this family is on the move from the country to the city, and parents don't seem to `get' tractors the way little boys and girls do. This hilarious story takes the form of an argument between parent and child about whether or not Tractor can come to the city. The more sensible the parent's objections, the more imaginative are the child's counter-arguments. Playful, very unconventional, and with a mysterious twist, this is a story for kids who love tractors - and that's all kids, right? This book will have special appeal to children who live on farms and take a dim view of city life, but city kids will also love the contrary tone of the child/parent dialogue - and who could fail to love Tractor?

The first in a series about a deeply loveable protagonist, by a writer with an impeccable ear for a real teenage voice Primrose Leary has just started middle school. Likes: her pet rat, Roderick; her best friend, Joel; and 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 mustachioed dad), the boy-school that Joel’s toddled off to without her, and not having her mother around any more. Hilariously and cleverly written, Prim Improper is the debut novel from Deirdre Sullivan.

Esper and Starn are twin boys who live in a grim world that has been almost laid waste by massive volcanic explosions. Very little grows in Orchard, which used to be a fruit-growing area, but with the death of insects and birds, pollination of the fruit trees is a tedious and precarious undertaking. 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 a 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. Their adventures are many and they come close to death. They do in the end, find the gold—but it is nothing like what they expected.

A musty room in Edwardian London. Egyptian relics leer from every nook and cranny. A man lies unconscious by a safe, blood pouring from his wrist, from which a key dangles. The wound was inflicted by a mysterious creature - a creature with seven claws. Elsewhere in the house an Egyptian gueen, mummified for five thousand years, silently awaits her resurrection. She needs the powers of a sacred ruby - the jewel of seven stars.

What do you do when the Queen is struggling with a knotty maths problem that only you, Billy Brown, can explain? You travel to her palace in the middle of the night and help the nation, of course! In return, the Queen now wants to come and visit – and you can’t say no to royalty.But the Queen’s suitcase contains two tiaras, a spare crown, three evening gowns, a silk dress and a pair of green wellingtons – nothing remotely suitable for visiting the bottle bank. Fitting in is tricky when you’re so magnificently different.A right royal riot of a read!

From a Hans Christian Andersen Award-winning author, a mystery that begins with clues in a school in modern-day Brazil and continues through the ages to ancient Egypt, a medieval wizard’s castle laboratory, and the ships that sailed from Europe to discover the New WorldGaming whizz Will, along with his friends Sonia, Miguel, Matt, and Faye, gets an A for a group history project. But when their teacher reads from their work, none of them recognizes the piece. This is the first of a number of mystery messages which appears in their homework and emails, on their phones, and on their computer screens. Someone from the past is trying to communicate with them, and they must decipher the messages—the strange words from years ago—and figure out how to respond. The messages from Nefertiti, Marco Polo, and the other voices all have one thing in common: they all have to do with the importance of being able to read, and of history living on through the written word.