Amazing Islands
100+ Places That Will Boggle Your Mind
A fact-filled, colourful celebration of island life, achievements and diversity
Discover 100 of the planet’s most magical islands – their wildlife, trees, diversity, people, treasures and more – in this beautifully illustrated book. Islands are amazing. On the Galapagos islands, Charles Darwin learnt how bird species evolved over time. In China, there is a natural island that is home to an incredible giant bookshop. On the Norwegian island of Svalbard, there is a vault built into the mountainside that contains seeds of the world’s food plants to protect them in the event of a global crisis. South Georgia Island in the Atlantic Ocean has seen many scientific expeditions, including the journey of Sir Ernest Shackleton… There is lots more to discover in this stunning book that celebrates island life, achievements and diversity.
Creators
Originally from Switzerland, Sabrina Weiss is a London-based science communicator working for an environmental nonprofit and, here and there, as a freelance writer. She previously worked in the aviation and technology sectors, always tasked with presenting complex information in an engaging and understandable way. Sabrina holds an MSc in Communication Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is fluent in four European languages and is currently learning Arabic. Sabrina Weiss's first book, Ocean: Secrets of the Deep, was published by What on Earth Books in 2019.
When she's not careering down slopes on her snowboard, Kerry Hyndman works from her South London studio creating rich, textured maps and illustrations. Her affinity for making blocky, abstract shapes take on a three dimensional lease of life with skilful layering has earned her a formidable client list including Bloomsbury, Faber and Faber and The Wall Street Journal.
Reviews
Amazing Islands is fantastic and I can’t wait to get it into the hands of the children in my school! The author has managed to pull off the feat of providing loads of information without the book ever feeling overwhelming … You could dip into Amazing Islands off and on for months and find new snippets of information to get excited over, making it ideal in a class library … Kerry Hyndman’s illustrations are the perfect accompaniment; detailed and joyful, but not so busy that they’re a distraction from the text. Animals and natural formations are carefully labelled, and the central fold-out world map is delightful, locating all the islands mentioned in the book.
Books for Topics
As a reminder of the impermanence of everything we take as stable, Amazing Islands is aptly named. Beautifully illustrated, this isn’t a natural history so much as a look at islands of every kind – from the unique wildlife on Madagascar to the culture of island nations. Along the way, we explore the geological wonders and artificial islands.
Discover Wildlife
This intriguing, colourful, fact-filled book is the first in a new Our Amazing World series and is an entertaining celebration of island diversity, wildlife, history, treasures and cultures … Amazing Islands is a whirlwind tour of some of the smallest land masses in the world. From islands that have been taken over by animals, to disappearing islands, islands made of shells, artificial islands and even islands that were once prison colonies, this book takes you on a breath-taking tour … The book contains lots of new science, history and geopolitics. Seven hundred million people (a tenth of the world’s population) live on islands so they are important in our human history and as far as the environment is concerned, islands are susceptible to increasing threats due to environmental issues …The perfect book to put island life in focus.
Lancashire Post
Readers with a particular penchant for statistical information will enjoy the fold-out world map locating all the islands mentioned in the narrative and it also provides several ‘island top tens’ … Each spread is alluringly illustrated with realistic depictions of the relevant flora and fauna, and organised with sufficient variety to maintain the reader’s interest.
Red Reading Hub
Amazing Islands is a fact-filled, colourful celebration of island diversity, including information about wildlife, history, treasures and culture and featuring volcanoes, rainforests, Komodo dragons, prison colonies and more – with over 100 of the world’s most magical islands to explore.
Books for Topics
