Katie Morag Delivers the Mail by Mairi Hedderwick
It’s great to see a book set in an environment distant from what most readers will be familiar with. Based on her own island life the author/illustrator not only brings a community to life, but makes it coherent too. She conveys a real feeling for how everyone (including the animals who crop up all over the place) fits together.
Wonderful to have a grandmother always in overalls and wellies. And she can fix tractors – how cool is that! Mairi Hedderwick has said that Morag is really her, but I think Grannie Island is as well.
Her paintings are a little reminiscent of Raymond Briggs’ early work. She manages to combine the light of that northern landscape and its spaciousness (with a lovely use of white paper) and a crowded busyness that always offers lots to look at and for.
