About Us
Ahoy! Drop anchor there for a minute, and listen till we tell you. It’s a good old sailor’s yarn.
Little Island first began to emerge from the sea back in 2008, when the author and general children’s books trouble-maker Siobhán Parkinson [www.siobhanparkinson.com or view her author profile here] approached Edwin Higel, publisher of New Island Books, with a mad sort of an idea.
She’d been having a glorious time over the previous few years co-editing a journal of international children’s literature, voyaging off to all sorts of wonderful places and generally being thrilled and excited by international children’s literature.
Why? she said to Edwin. Why can’t Irish children get to see more of this great stuff? How come it’s nearly all British and American books that our children get the chance to read? After all, remember Heidi? Pinocchio? Pippi Longstocking? Hans Christian Andersen? Would we even have heard of these wonderful books if they were being published today?
Edwin nodded sagely and said 'Hmm' quite a lot.
And then some months later he came back to Siobhán and said, 'Right, when are you ready to start?'
'Start what?' she asked, bewildered.
'Publishing books for children,' he said. 'Isn’t that what you suggested?'
'Well, not exactly.'
'International ones,' he said.
'Gosh, yes,' she said. 'I did mention that.'
'Right,' he said. 'And Irish ones too of course. Good ones.'
'By all means,' she said.
'We’ll call it Little Island,' he went on. 'Because New Island is its parent. OK?'
'OK.'
So we did. And here we are.
Our first six books come ashore this spring. There are two by German authors, translated by Siobhán Parkinson; two new editions of classics of recent Irish children’s literature; and two books by TOTALLY NEW authors, fished out of the Irish Sea by Siobhán.
Our German authors, published for the first time in English, are Burkard Spinnen and Renate Ahrens [www.renate-ahrens.de]. Our Irish classic authors are Maeve Friel [www.maevefriel.com] and Mark O’Sullivan . And our new Irish authors are Jean Flitcroft [www.jeanflitcroft.com] and Tom O’Neill.
The Little Island Team
General Manager: Edwin Higel
Publisher and Commissioning Editor: Siobhán Parkinson
Publishing Assistant: Elaina O'Neill
Publicity: Gráinne Killeen. Contact grainne [at] killeencommunications [dot] com or call (00 353) 1 2606610
Sales, Production & Design: All provided by New Island