Grasshopper Island - The Book

1971 Edition - front

This is the cover of the original edition of Grasshopper Island published by William Collins Sons & Co Ltd. It features a scene from the final TV episode "Buttons' Blue" where Toughy is hiding as part of an ambush for nasty Dr. Hopper. This scan is from the website author's personal copy published in 1971!

1971 Edition - rear

This is the rear cover of the 1971 edition. It features two production photos, Cornelius Button and Lupus returning from a shopping expedition to the Mainland, and another of Mouse getting rid of Dr Hopper.

2017 Re-issue Edition

This re-issue of the book was published by Grasshopper Productions in 2017, with the original black and white drawings by Carol Lawson who produced this bright new colour illustration for the front cover.
Happily the book is still available to order online!

The TV Series came first

The book was based directly on the TV series - which Joy wrote after the filming in 1970. This meant that both the book and TV series became fantastic companion pieces to each other. Characters and locations in the book match exactly those shown on TV, and now, on DVD.

Illustrations

Likewise Carol Lawson based her original illustrations on the key scenes and characters as depicted in the TV series.

You can take a look at some of Carol Lawsons many other fascinating works by visiting her website carollawson.co.uk

Publishers often created their own cover illustrations in house. So it is possible to find different cover treatments depending on the country of publication.

Junior Press were the publishers for Germany. A different cover shows the boys catching their first sight of Grasshopper Island (illustrator unknown).

Photograph kindly provided by Uli

This cover shows one of Mouse’s collection of hats (illustrator unknown). But the author is attributed to "Joe Whitby", a rather glaring error but in hindsight, quite a funny one!

Photograph kindly provided by Uli