Tag Jill Calder

Cass and the Beast

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Cass and the Beast
Claire Mabey and Jill Calder
Gecko Press

Something ‘other’ has arrived in town and the townsfolk, not knowing what it is, call it Beast. Their fear causes them to think it is likely to catch anyone who tried hunting it and munch them whole. Young Cass doesn’t believe this however; she’s seldom scared and if ever she is, it’s people who frighten her, not beasts.

One night, she watches through the window and sees the beast moving among the trees; with its rumbling belly she thinks perhaps it’s in desperate need of food. Once everybody else is in bed, she creeps out in her thin coat clutching a piece of bread and calls out “Hello. Are you hungry?” The beast turns and Cass offers the bread, which the beast takes. Suddenly she feels herself being lifted onto the beast’s back.

So begins a magical journey that takes her far from the town and into a meadow. There the beast sates its hunger and the two curl up and sleep till the following morning when they return from whence they came, with the townsfolk watching Cass and the beast bidding one another farewell. The townspeople give Cass a new name and the beast finds its true name, which readers/listeners will learn on the final page, though I suspect many will be ready and waiting to call it out, if the adult reader aloud pauses on the penultimate spread.

Difference and how people react to it is a key theme in Claire Mabey’s somewhat surreal, magical story of a risk-taking child; it’s complemented by Jill Calder’s powerfully atmospheric, detailed scenes of Cass’s journey with the beast. Would the young children you share this with be brave enough to undertake a similar journey?

Coorie Doon: A Scottish Lullaby Story

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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.