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We love receiving emails and questions from schools about our picture books! For World Book Day, Maple Class from Woodborough Primary School in Wiltshire have been working with 'The Umbrella', one of our favourite wordless picture books from the Netherlands: The children sent us the following list of questions,  for Ingrid and Dieter Schubert, the illustrators, to answer. You can read more about them here.  Ingrid and Dieter really liked the questions and had a lot of fun answering them: What inspired you to write/ make/ illustrate this book? There is an old German story about a little boy called Robert. One...

Here at Book Island we’re so excited to have received the news from CILIP that one of our magnificent picture books, Little Wise Wolf, illustrated by Hanneke Siemensma and written by Gijs van der Hammen, has been longlisted for the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal 2020! Little Wise Wolf is an outstanding story translated by Laura Watkinson about a little wolf, who reads by day and star gazes by night. All of his animal friends come to him to get answers to their difficult questions, like 'what do butterflies eat?' and 'how many stars are in the sky?'. However, Little Wise Wolf has...

Here at Book Island we're so excited that the day has finally come that we are launching the Kickstarter for the reprint of Tine Mortier's outstanding picture book Maia and What Matters. Maia and What Matters is an incredibly unique picture book illustrated by Kaatje Vermeire, translated from the Dutch by David Colmer and first published by us, Book Island, in 2013. This book tackles many cultural taboos, including ageing and loss in a profoundly meaningful way. However, due to its popularity, it has now been out of print for several years. This is no ordinary bedtime story. Maia and What Matters is...

Many thanks to everyone who's taken part in our illustration competition over the past month. The daily stream of entries showed very clearly how well many of you know our picture book list.  Below you can find each illustration, with the matching cover, and the name of the winner underneath.  DAY 1: Illustration from Witchfairy, by Carll Cneut    Winner: Charlotte Clark  DAY 2: Illustration from Follow the Firefly, by Bernardo Carvalho    Winner: Ceire Hopley DAY 3: Illustration from One House for All, by Juris Petraškevičs   Winner: Sue Thomas DAY 4: Illustration from The Umbrella, by Ingrid and...

We’ve finally reached the last day of our illustration competition! Here’s our illustration for today:    You know what to do by now – if you think you know which book this little green duck might be from, email us using this link and let us know for a chance to win a copy of the book. Remember, you can check the books section of our website if you need some extra help.   We want to say a huge thank you to you for entering our illustration competition over the last few weeks. It’s been great to see everyone’s enthusiasm for...

It’s the penultimate day of our illustration competition! We’ve had such a good time reading all of your emails and can’t wait to let you know all of the winners on Monday 11 November. Here’s our illustration for today:    Do you recognise this mouse? If you know which book they might be from, send us an email here for a chance to win a free copy.    Best of luck and see you back here tomorrow for our final day!    

There are only three more days to go of our illustration competition, where we’re offering you the chance to win a free book every day. Do you think you know which of our books this badger and his friends might be from?     Let us know by sending us an email using this link. If you feel stuck, remember to check out some of the images from the books section of our website.   See you tomorrow for the penultimate day of our competition! 

It’s day 20 of our illustration competition which means there are only four days to go. Today’s illustration comes from one of our more recent releases. Do you know which?     If you have an idea of which book this image is from, email us using this link and let us know. As usual, you can find some helpful hints by browsing the book section of our website if you need some extra help.   See you tomorrow!

Hello again and thanks for joining us for day 19 of our illustration competition. Our illustration today shows two best friends hanging out together on a motorbike. Do you think you know which of our books they could be from?     Let us know by sending us an email using this link. As always, check out our the books page of our website for help if you need it.   See you on Monday! 

We’re so glad you’re here for day 18 of our illustration competition, where we’re giving you the chance to win a free book every day! With only 6 days to go, we are nearing the end of the competition and getting closer to revealing all of our winners. Here’s the illustration for day 18:     Do you know which book these two friends are from? Send us an email using this link to let us know. As usual, feel free to browse the books section of our website for some inspiration if you feel a little stuck.  Good luck! Have a...