Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett

Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett is a total treasure of a book and if you haven’t read this book already, then you really must.

This is quite a strange age range I know but I’d pitch it at 2-7 year olds, with olders probably enjoying it too if they came across it on the bookshelf, or if a younger sibling was given it.

I just LOVE how this book looks – it’s all brown paper and string, newspaper clippings, tape, stamps, postmarks and ‘squiggly drawings’ with lovely sandy and charcoal illustrations. We had a flick through this and also Emily’s other book, Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears,  when we were discussing the style for Elfie’s Christmas Letters.  We love the handled, recycled and natural look of them both.

The design is in a similar vein to the very popular book The Jolly Postman, and is so beautifully and sensitively written.

Sunny the meerkat lives in a large group in the kalahari desert. Feeling rather claustrophobic, he packs up his things into a little suitcase and ‘goes on holiday’ to stay with his mongoose cousins, where he hopes things will be a little more relaxing…

Wherever he goes, he sends a postcard home (complete with crossings out and smudges) and things are never ‘quite right’..

He gets more and more homesick and the postcards get more and more emotional. Finally he stumbles upon ‘home’ and realises he’s never been more pleased to be back with all the things he was originally trying to escape from.

Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett is a really lovely humorous story about adventure, community, family and that warm glowy feeling you get when you’re surrounded by very familiar people that you love.

What could be better?

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