Tortuga by Paul Geraghty (Hutchinson pound;9.99) is a gloriously colourful and atmospheric picture book for all ages that tells the story of a tortoise who is gathered up into the air in a hurricane and dumped in the ocean. Clinging to driftwood, she eventually lands on a green island. There she has to battle it out agains predatory native creatures - ghost crabs, sea birds who steal her eggs, and monitor lizards who push her off a high rock. She manages to traverse the island, but finds no companion tortoise. On the point of despair, she is finally joined by a line of young tortoises, hatched from eggs the sea birds spared.