Katie Morag and the New Boy Katie Morag

# Katie Morag

# Far away across the ocean

# Katie Morag

# Over the sea to Struay

# Katie Morag

# Far away across the ocean

# Katie Morag

# Over the sea to Struay. #

My name is Katie Morag McColl, and I live on the island of Struay.

I suppose it's quite wee, but it's ginormous to me, and everyone

looks out for me when I'm out and about having my adventures.

This is where I live with my family.

My mum and dad run the shop and Post Office.

This is the bedroom I share with my brother Liam.

My mum says it's an absolute midden.

This is the croft where Grannie Island lives

with her animals and hens.

This is the Redburn Bridge where I play pooh sticks.

And I think it's the best place in the whole entire world,

and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

I was really sad when Mrs Muir left us to go and live on the mainland.

She'd been my teacher since forever, and everybody loved her!

Today was the day our new teacher started,

and I was a little bit worried.

What if I didn't like him? What if he didn't like ME?!

I was a little bit excited, too, though.

Mum said the teacher had a son called John,

and he was going to be joining our class!

That meant we'd have a whole new person to play with!

We all got in early that morning, cos we couldn't wait to see

what our new teacher was like. But Agnes said she already knew!

I saw him getting off the ferry!

-Did not!

-Did so!

-Did not!

-Did so!

-Did not!

-Did so!

-Fine then, what does he look like?

He's big, and scary and mean, and he kind of walks around like this...

With a big snarl on his face...

Grrrr!

He's got big horns coming out of his head and a yellow tongue.

And you don't want to be too near him

when he's hungry or he'll gobble you up for his dinner.

My goodness, he sounds awful!

'He didn't look like a monster, in fact he didn't look scary at all.'

Right... Good morning, boys and girls.

I'm Mr Mackie.

OK, let's try that once again, shall we?

Good morning, boys and girls. I'm Mr Mackie.

ALL: Good morning, Mr Mackie!

-That's better! This is John, your new classmate.

-Hey.

'I wasn't so sure about John, though.

'I wasn't sure about him at all.'

It's going to take me a couple of days to remember all your names

so be kind to me. But I have a good idea of who you all are

because of the descriptions Mrs Muir has given to me!

I think one of the best ways for us all to get to know

one another is to tell one another about some of our favourite things!

Now every one of you will take it in turns to get up

and do your show and tell to the rest of the class.

Now, you could choose a person,

or a pet...

or even a place!

Now, who's got something special they'd like to tell us about?

How about the rest of you?

Any ideas?

No?

OK, John. what would you like to tell us about?

The big ginormous place I come from!

That's a great idea!

Now, what about...you?

What's your favourite thing?

'I couldn't think of anything to talk about.'

All right, um... what's the one thing you couldn't do without?

My wellies.

Excellent answer!

Don't worry. You don't have to make your minds up just yet.

Have a wee think and over the next couple of days we'll all take it

in turns to tell each other the things we think are really special.

All right?

-Here you go.

-Is the postcard for your talk, Agnes?

Yep. And I'm going to play my fiddle

and sing a song about all the animals on my farm!

-And what's your favourite thing, John?

-The place I come from.

That's nice, is it very special?

It is, it's the best!

-There's a brand-new cinema with lots of screens!

-Wow!

And a shopping centre and an ice skating rink and everything!

That sounds great! And how about you, Katie Morag?

-What'll you be talking about?

-It won't be my wellies!

-You could talk about Struay!

-Struay? There can't be much to talk about.

There's TONNES to talk about. I could talk about it all day!

In fact, that's exactly what I'm going to do!

-He's right, Struay IS boring!

-Nonsense!

We don't even have a cinema with one screen, or a shopping centre,

-or anything!

-Well, let's think.

We've got the Teller of Tall Tales standing stones...

-They're quite interesting.

-And the Wild Goat place!

Silly stones, stupid goats!

Maybe I SHOULD just talk about wellies..!

There's a train station, double decker buses,

and hundreds of shops that you could buy absolutely anything you wanted.

There's an ice-skating rink, and there's a swimming pool,

and loads of restaurants that you can go to any time of the day.

In my old school, there was

probably the size of the whole island of Struay in one class,

but the best thing of all is the cinema. Seven screens!

Seven screens...?!

And you can even watch movies in 3D!

And that, ladies and gentlemen,

is Inverness - the place I come from.

And the best place to live in the entire world.

Seven screens...? Why would you need seven screens?

You've only got one pair of eyes!

Screwdriver...

And there's hundreds of shops!

There's all I need in Struay Shop.

Washer.

It's just that Struay's soooo boooring!

-Says who?!

-John.

Well, John doesn't know what he's talking about.

There's plenty of amazing things on Struay.

You just need to know where to look.

That's it.

You come with me...and I'll show you.

Well now, Katie Morag...

What was in the incubator last time we looked?

-Eggs.

-That's right. Just boring old eggs on boring old Struay.

Right... Take a look at this!

Awww..!

CHICKS CHEEP

Do you want to lift one out?

It's like Granma Mainland's powder puff!

It is indeed!

Pop it in there again.

Well, where are we?

On the beach!

Wrong! We're at the Struay Zoo!

We don't have a zoo!

Well, what's that over there?

It's a...um, gannet.

That's right!

Now, a gannet flies way up in the sky, almost as high as the clouds,

then they turn back and dive down into the water like a rocket!

Wham! And they hit the water at very nearly 100mph.

Wow! Really?!

And that's so that they can dive right down, really deep,

and catch more fish!

-What's that over there?

-It's a seal.

A seal! Did you know, the seal has super-powers!

They can hold their breath underwater for ten whole minutes!

That's impossible!

Not for a seal, it's not!

What's that?!

Otter!

They're amazing beasts!

You know, they float in the water on their backs

and eat their dinner right off their tummies!

Wow!

I've watched them doing it.

Oh, Katie Morag,

look at this!

What's this?

A bean! Oh, look!

That's a seed from a giant tree that's far, far away,

along a huge river called the Amazon.

Wow!

Probably took a whole year before it reached us.

'Grannie Island told me all the secrets of the sea-bean,

'and how to polish it so it shone just like a jewel.

'And by the time she'd finished,

'we'd reached the very top of Ben Bog.'

Well, now, Katie Morag...

When you were talking about the cinema in Inverness,

I thought of this place.

The thing is, we only have the one screen here,

but it's the biggest screen you could ever imagine!

Is that the evening star?

Do you know the proper name for it?

I do! And it's not even a star! It's Planet Venus!

That's right! And all in genuine 3D technicolor!

I can see the stars coming out!

That's it!

So bright!

Well, that's because we've no street lighting here, Katie Morag.

If we were in the city, there would be too much light for us

-to see the stars properly!

-That's sad.

Aye. But they DO have double-decker buses!

SHE LAUGHS

I would like to tell you about the Isle of Struay.

'And so I ended up talking about Struay after all!

'I said we didn't have buses or lots of shops,

'but we did have fluffy chicks that look like powder puffs!

'And gannets that dive like rockets, seals that hold their breath,

'and otters who float on their back

'and eat their dinner off their tummies!

'And we didn't have a cinema,

'but we did have our own 3D screen with all our stars

'and planets in the sky!'

But the best thing I found was a treasure.

And I found it with Grannie Island on the beach.

It comes from the River Amazon.

It would've taken about a year to get here.

-Wow!

-What is it..?!

It's a sea-bean from the River Amazon!

It's just like a jewel.

'The class couldn't believe it when I told them

'the story of this particular sea-bean...

'Though I must admit, I added a bit of my own imagination.

'I told them how it had floated miles and miles across the ocean

'and about all the dangers it faced on the way!

'An entire year, it had to fight off sharks

'and giant octopuses, and how every time it got near the beach,

'a great big wave would throw it out to sea again.

'Finally it made it onto the beach, right here on Struay,

'and waited till we found it - me and my Grannie Island.'

Goodness, goodness, my goodness, Katie Morag!

What a beautiful object. And what a remarkable story!

Tell me, what are you going to do with the sea-bean now?

I'm going to give it for a present to someone who doesn't have one.

Welcome to Struay, John. I hope you like it here.

Thank you!

'We looked for sea-beans every time we went to the beach after that,

'but we didn't find another one.

'We didn't mind, though - we found lots of other things instead!

'Like shiny pieces of glass, or funny bits of wood.

'But mostly we found how easy it is to make friends with someone,

'even if you come from different places.

'My Grannie Island lives across the bay

'and we have a special torch signal.'

(Goodnight, Grannie Island.)

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd