Katie Morag Delivers the Mail

Katie Morag #1

by Mairi Hedderwick

When the village mail gets muddled up, it's up to Katie to sort things out—with a little help from Grannie Island and her tractor.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Scotland, Family

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Although she was born in Gourock, and attended the Edinburgh College of Art, the highlands and islands of Scotland have always been Mairi Hedderwick's true home. In 1962 she settled on Coll, where she raised her family and taught art at primary school. Her first home on Coll had no electricity or running water, and the nearest neighbor lived two miles away.

Mairi Hedderwick is the author and illustrator of the much loved Katie Morag series of children's books the first of which was published in 1984.

Hedderwick has also written and illustrated several travel books, including Highland Journey and An Eye on the Hebrides.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane]

Love the pictures in this book, especially the map of the island, lots of detail to spot. We thought the story was very funny, when all the people got the wrong parcels and when Katie Morag fell in the water.

[Laura (Book Scrounger)]

This was one of my favorite series when I was a child growing up in Scotland. It definitely presents a nice picture of Scottish island life. I also love that her grandmother drives a tractor.

[Emilis Kuke]

Fascinating illustrations. Story reminds myself at work! I constantly do something wrong (in modern sensitivities I perhaps should say "I constantly do something less than perfect"). For example, one of my early childhood memories is when I was about 7 years old. I poured a cabbage soup into a giant teapot when I didn't wanted to finish eating it. Well I guess that, regardless of what I do, the tendency to solve problems with short-term solutions has persisted until now. Sometimes I still lacking of bigger picture stuff. :-D Yeah, that's me. Anyway, lovely book, lovely reading. I highly recommend it to those who want to spend a twenty minutes or so by looking at magnificent illustrations, remembering their childhood or some misfortune.

P.S. I came across this book while reading latest Alexander McCall Smith book of series Scotland street 44. I really appreciate the way how Alexander McCall Smith enriches my life with references to works of art.

[Elizabeth]

I have been doing some story times about the mail and the post office. I found this beautiful watercolor book in Infosoup that I was immediately drawn to because of the Scottish flavor. (Look at Katie's plaid skirt! Look at the sheep!) The book is said to be set on the island of Struay---that is fictional but it IS based on the real life ISLE OF COLL which is in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.

We began by talking about how it would be to live on an island and have the mail brought there by boat. Our protagonist, Katie, is told to deliver the mail by her parents. Katie's younger baby sibling is cutting a tooth and they have their hands full! Katie has 5 packages to deliver. One is for her grandmother. That is easy because it has a red tag on it. It contains a part that is needed to repair the grandmother's tractor. The other four packages are labeled. Katie has an accident where she falls in the water and the packages lose their delivery information and are all mixed up!

Katie delivers each package to the stoop of own of the known recipients but she gets all of them wrong. Last call, she goes to her grandmother. Katie explains the accident to her grandmother. Grandmother repairs the tractor and takes Katie to each location once more to check on the deliveries and recitfy the mistakes.

The sweet ending is when Katie is delivered home by her grandmother and her grandmother tells them how wonderful Katie is without telling on her. I love this intergenerational story about problem solving and fixing one's errors.

Copyright: 1984 and apparently part of a beloved series!

I want to note here, too, that a grandma at story time is the mother of a postal worker. (We are rural.)

She told me that for some people on her daughter's route, the mail delivery is their ONLY human contact during the day. Wow! What a (tragic) concept!

[Olwyn]

found this in the cottage on Arran I was staying in w my pals :) so happy :) she's so real for falling over in that stream

[Max Lawson]

Katie Morag gets the mail is the first in a series of classic childrens books by Mairi Hedderwick. All of the books are based on the fictional island of Struay, despite the topography and location matching the small island where the author lives. This particular story follows Katie Morag as she delivers the island post after it becomes muddled, with a little help from Grandma Island and her tractor.

As the story follows the characters delivering the post we are introduced to the key features of Struay through beautiful double-page and intricately detailed watercolour illustrations. These captivate, excite and inspire children who I've found become hungrier for as much information as possible about the island the further you progress through the story. I can see significant cross-curricular links to Geography, particularly related to transport and map reading that forms the later and early parts of Key Stage 1 and 2 respectively. Children can see how the landscape changes in different parts of the island, see how maps work from the island map included in the book (and even make their own!), think about all the different kinds of transport they can see in the book, and compare it to the kind of transport they come across in their own towns.

[Carolyn, Ur Local Carrot Stick]

This book was amazing! Thank you Eloise for recommending it to me!

[Shelly]

As charming as it was when i first read it as a child.

[Mathew]

Ashamedly, this is the first I have read any of this series but really enjoyed it. The layout with the island of Struay being envisioned as a map right at the start and placemarkers on each of the pages helping us identify where Katie is, reminded me so much of Rosie's Walk. Although prone to mishaps and rather creative in her free play, Katie Morag is independent and cheerful in her thick woolly jumper and wellingtons.
With her parents being too busy with a teething baby, it is up to Katie to deliver the mail in this story and children can enjoy looking at her journey over the island. Definitely a book which would encourage empathy and close reading.

[Claire jobbins]

This book is a brilliant book if you are looking to explore a range of themes such as righting your wrongs or exploring emotions with children. The writing itself is clear and easy to rad with children in Year 2 and provides a number of cross curricular and lesson ideas. There are a number of resources that you can use to decorate your classroom with and role play area ideas that will introduce drama to young children and aid in comprehension.

[Kyrie]

Sweet story about small towns, kids being kids and grandmas helping guide the sorting out. I like that grandmother didn't just take over. She helped, but Katie was the one who had to fix the problem she created.

[FM Family]

Loved this one - the first we've read in the Katie Morag series. But really, very, very reminiscent of James Mayhew's Katie series, in terms of the UK-based, red-headed, spunky protagonist and her grandma. Although this grandma is a lot more dynamic and hands on than that of the museum visiting Katie!

Fun, relatable story that starts out with everyone annoyed with eachother and Katie making a silly mistake but all ends up resolved in the end. I appreciated the little details of this book, the fact that everyone is sort of crabby and grouchy for good and not so good reasons. The grandma clearly brewing some kind of homebrew with her 3 different airlocked carboys in her house. I love also that the grandma is matter of fact, doesn't tell Katie how to solve her problem but helps her to do it and shows up for her when she has to go home. This is just the kind of story that I love which shows love and character amid the somewhat mundane things that happen each day.

My three year old really enjoyed it and especially liked looking for Grannie's dog in each of the pictures, once we noticed it following her tractor home at the end of the day. Yay for Katie Morag!

Stories written pre 1990 are always a bit stressful, because I worry there's going to be some stereotype or really weird message lurking within (like my disappointment at the 2nd Large Family book I read that was all about how it's terrible to be fat :( ). But often these stories instead had more freedom in how they show the realities of a family, or the multi-dimensions of adult characters, and this is one of those times. Great book!

[Fahma Salad]

From Year 2
'I think this was an interesting and amazing book. It was amazing and interesting because it gave us so much information about the life of Katie Morag. I really liked this book because it was really funny especially the bit were she had to change her cloths after falling into the pool under the Red Burn Bridge. Also the bit were she thought she would get yelled at by her mother.'

Thank you

[Megan]

Sent to Maeve by my beloved BFF in Scotland, we love Katie Morag stories. This one was my daughter's favorite for a while and then she moved on to the Tiresome Ted. Love to read about Katie Morag's adventures, the lovely characters on the Isle of Struay, and to notice all of the little details in the wonderful illustrations.

[Rosemary]

Came across this delightful little book at a library book sale. I'm suppose to resell it in my used book store but I might need to keep it. I'd love to read it to a grandchild someday. The story is sweet and the watercolor illustrations wonderful. I'll be keeping an eye out for more in the series at sales and book shops.

[Louise]

A simple story. Katie Morag is helping her parents by delivering five parcels, and she gets them all muddled. The first of a series.

[Dewi Natalia]

The complication of this story book make the story fun to be read!

[Jenna Mills]

Very sweet

[Fay Sukparangsee]

childhood classic

[Kristal]

3.5 stars

Poor Katie gets herself into a pickle! Thankfully granny saves the day!

[Hattie]

Harrowing tale of child labour in scotland in the late twentieth century

[Diane]

I adore the paintings in the Katie Morag books, but often the stories leave me wanting for a better family depiction, so I often adlib. This story is a sweet one though.

[Lucy]

I wish i was katie morag.....
this is one of elizabeth's favourite stories, and the only reason i don't like to read it, is because we have a whole collection of them, and it means i don't get to read some of my favourites....!!

[Lucy Coleman]

Lovely illustrations reminding me of childhood holidays in Scotland!

[Pauline]

My class love this story and we have created some wonderful pieces of creative writing using this book as inspiration.

[Jennie Lillian]

My favourite book as a child!

[Lillian]

Very cute Scottish picture book series. The watercolor illustrations are beautiful and so detailed. I highly recommend.

[Cassandra]

Such lovely detail in the pictures.

[Asif mahmood]

It is a enjoyable book, I'm just delighted by reading it. It is really good for children.

[Freya]

loved it!!!!!!!!!!
cant believe that their actually on tv now!!!! :P