cover image Katie Morag Delivers the Mail

Katie Morag Delivers the Mail

Mairi Hedderwick. Little Brown and Company, $13.95 (25pp) ISBN 978-0-316-35405-9

On a day when baby Liam is cutting a tooth, Katie Morag's parents send her off to deliver the mail. On the Isle of Struay, the mail only comes once a week, so its arrival always generates plenty of excitement. There are five packages, including one for her grandmother, which bears a red tag. But, when the labels on the other four get wet and smeared, Katie Morag goes ahead and haphazardly delivers them. She later confesses to her grandmother, who helps her get the correct package to each recipient and doesn't tattle on her to Katie's parents. The open stretch of this busy Scottish island is an ideal setting for industrious Katie Morag. And readers will be reassured to discover that there is no disaster so big that it can't be remedied somehow. As with all the Katie Morag books, Hedderwick's watercolors convey the blustery island scenes, and both the charm and frustrations of such wild isolation. Ages 4-8. (May)