Coorie Doon: A Scottish Lullaby Story
Jackie Kay and Jill Calder
Walker Books

This debut picture book by renowned poet, Jackie Kay, has its roots in well-known folk songs. Subtitled ‘A Scottish Lullaby Story’, the author also uses some lyrical old Scots phraseology.
The story begins with Shona – a ‘wee bit bairn’ listening to her daddy singing Coorie Doon, till she fell asleep under ‘the huge eye o’the moon. (Corrie Doon’, the author tells us after the story means ‘snuggle in tight, tuck in.’)

This ritual happens every night and sometimes the song a parent sang would be The Tiree Love Song; other times it would be “Goodnight, Irene, … / I’ll see you in my dreams.”
As young Shona sleeps, readers too enter her dream world encountering in different places, her friends her black and white cat Flo, Marley her dog, baby Serenity and more.

Then, sixty years later it’s the turn of Shona to tuck her aged dad into bed and to sing to him, “Coorie Doon, Coorie Doon, wee Daddy” before going out the back door into the night to look at and wave to the moon.

That Shona is adopted is not referred to in the narrative but in a letter to readers at the back of the book, Jackie tells us that she imagined Shona being so, and that she too was adopted as a baby.
Gorgeously illustrated by Jill Calder, her soft, warm scenes help celebrate the small, childhood rituals and how they become embedded within us, a vital part of who we are.

Opposite the title page is a QR code so readers can watch an author video, and listen to recordings by folk singers Peggy Seeger, Claire Brown and Suzanne Bonnar. A treasure of a book.