Recommended by Mia at Jones

https://geographical.co.uk/media/k2/items/cache/7b7294a5e4868580c80f42d3cfc5a6fa... ( )

This book had been languishing on my to read shelf for too long. Thanks to Kaleidoscope Magazine and GR friend Hilary I finally felt inspired to borrow and read a copy. A huge thank you to them and to GR friend Abigail who first alerted me to the book and inspired me to add it to my to read list.

I hadn’t realized or had forgotten that this is a true story. It’s a biography of a man (mostly when he was a young boy) and of an island and its inhabitants, humans and other species. It’s a history book and I knew nothing about this island and I learned a lot. Norman John Gilles was born on St. Kilda in 1925 and he lived a long life, but he was part of the evacuation of all the island people in 1930 when he was only five years old.

The story is compelling. It’s fascinating and heartwarming and at times sad. I have to say that while I understand Norman John’s lifelong love of his first home and of how many of the elders had a hard time adapting to the change they made, I don’t find that harsh and isolated way of life appealing in the least, even though there were some good things about that way of life. I can understand the nostalgia but I don’t share it, except for a very few aspects of it. Even considering the sense of community and how enchanting and unique living on the island was in many ways, the experience was and the islands are, the lives that humans who lived there were incredibly difficult.

The illustrations are beautiful and evocative and I appreciated how they covered so much about the island. There are pictures of the people and their dwellings and there are also pictures of all the animals living on and spending time on the island and of the island in general. I love maps in books and the drawn maps here were exceedingly helpful and they’re pleasing to the eye too.

This book is a complete package. Gorgeous illustrations, natural history, human history, a wonderful story. It’s a picture book but long and text heavy but suitable even for young children. There is one sad part, well two sad parts I guess, but the way everything is presented make it fine for all ages. This is a children’s book that will appeal as much to adult readers as it will to younger readers/listeners.

The author/illustrator included a wonderful sketchbook at the end of the book, done during a four day long 2017 visit to St. Kilda. The included photo and the author’s note are fascinating and a great enhancement to enjoying the book. She explains how she came to make this book and described the process by which the art was done. I’m impressed with the research conducted! It made for an authentic and emotionally touching book.

This is a gloriously splendid book. I can recommend it for virtually everyone. The author/illustrator earned her MA in Children’s Book Illustration, and I will be looking out for her work in all future books! I hope that she also has or develops other passions and also writes other books that she illustrates.

A winner! 5 full stars! ( )

Gorgeously illustrated and beautifully told, this debut picture-book from British author/artist Beth Waters tells the true story of the remote Scottish islands of St Kilda, far to the west of the Hebrides, and of Norman John Gillies, one of the last children to live there. Detailing the life of the tiny human community on Hirta, the largest and only human-inhabited of the islands, the book also explores the unique local wildlife. Inhabited by humans for 4000 years, Hirta gave rise to a close-knit, hard-working community, one which never knew money or crime, and where everyone was taken care of. As young people migrated however, and various hardships - crop failure, exposure to unknown illnesses - wreaked havoc, the people of St Kilda eventually decided that they would have to abandon their home, evacuating in 1930...

Although well familiar with the over-arching theme of Scotland and Ireland's western islands being abandoned, during the course of the 20th century, I don't think I had read anything, before Child of St Kilda, that really brought home the tragedy of such events - the loss of the unique cultures of the islanders. I found this book fascinating, and loved learning about both the human and animal residents of St Kilda. How interesting that, because the islanders were so isolated, they had little resistance to diseases like the common cold, which were brought to them by tourists, when they started visiting. How interesting also, that various species developed into larger versions of themselves, in the absence of predators on the islands! Informative, engaging, and completely heartbreaking at times, Child of St Kilda is also hopeful, exploring in the afterword how Norman John Gillies made a life for himself on the mainland. It is also beautifully, beautifully illustrated - a sheer pleasure to peruse! It's so well done, both textually and visually, that it is difficult to believe that it is Beth Waters' debut. Highly recommended, to anyone looking for poignant and powerful picture-books for slightly older children, or for children's stories about or set in Scotland's western islands. ( )