Mairi Hedderwick

Katie Morag & the Dancing Class is a new and delightful picture book from Mairi Hedderwick. Set in Scotland, it has been decided that the Isle of Struay children will benefit from dancing classes. Despite the efforts of her two grandmas, Katie Morag has more interesting things to do than learn ballet. Much to Granma Mainland’s dismay, Katie prefers wellies to ballet slippers and never manages to arrive at her ballet class on time.

One Saturday morning, Katie misses the entire class, show more arriving just as The Big Boy Cousins begin their tap dance class. As those who know Katie might suspect, she is more inclined toward tap dancing than ballet and before long Grannie Island is rummaging in her cupboards for metal tacks.

Katie Morag has long been a favourite in our household. We first me her in Katie Morag Delivers the Mail and have enjoyed many of her adventures and misadventures very much. There is a gentleness to the stories and a wonderful sense of community. In this book, the contrast between the two grandmas (Granma Mainland and Grannie Island) is highlighted. Of course, both want what is best for Katie but it is Grannie Island who understands her best. show less

If you, like me, are blessed with grandsons who tend to immediately reenact the most objectionable behaviour they read about, this may not be the book for your family. The big boy cousins really get up to some awful hijinks and the way they ignore and disobey their grannie is just terrible. However, once they get the worst of it out of their system (which takes most of the book) they settle down to helpfulness and treats on the last three pages. Like all Katie Morag books this is a show more delightful Island story. But a word of warning, the Red Fox Mini Treasures series are tiny... and they photoreduce illustrations and text. I'm a grannie, and I can't read 5-point print without strong light and a magnifying glass.

It's as if the big boy cousins didn't want adults to read about their horrible naughtiness! show less

A lovely story of an Island ceilidh, family, celebration, panic, and why it's not good to sing about shoving your other Granny off a bus when both your Grannies are there to hear it. (Fortunately there was a last minute change of programme!) Like all Katie Morag books this is a delightful Island story. But a word of warning, the Red Fox Mini Treasures series are tiny... and they photoreduce both illustrations and text. I'm a grannie, and I can't read 5-point print without strong light and a show more magnifying glass. show less

The illustrations are gorgeous and evocative, worth the price of the book. The text is rather thin, which I didn't expect because the Katie Morag books are so lively -- but it doesn't really matter. Except that my book is supposedly a "new edition", copyrighted in 2009, yet makes no reference to the epochal event in the history of Vatersay -- the building of the causeway to the Isle of Barra, ending the isolation (literally) of the tiny island and saving it from total depopulation. That show more particular omission stands out to me because of how fervent in their gratitude to "EU money" the Barrans were in 2004 when I visited the island, but there may be others. Life goes on very much the same in the Hebrides, except when it doesn't. show less