When a sailor can't bear life on ship any more, he jumps overboard and swims to a big barren rock. There he cares for a half-drowned cockerel and plants rice, hiding away when a boat arrives. The sailors are amazed to see rice growing and keep coming back, leaving plants and game-birds, until the island bursts with tropical fruit and wildlife. But soon the Queen of Portugal hears about it and demands to meet the person responsible.

 

There are 32 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 2008 by Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd .

Jude Daly was born in London and emigrated to South Africa as a young child. She went to art college in Cape Town, and now lives there with her husband, the writer and illustrator Niki Daly, and their two sons. Dianne Hofmeyr grew up on the tip of Southern Africa. She graduated as an art teacher in Cape Town and has written several teenage novels and picture books. she has won the M-Net Award for fiction and has two IBBY Honour Books.