It’s that time of year again! Time for the launch of my latest Picture Kelpies rhyming story, all about a pair of young mountain hares who live in the Cairngorms, a national park and mountain range in the Highlands of Scotland. Maisie and Archie start out as leverets, the word for a baby hare. They spend their days sleeping in a shallow depression in the heather and grasses called a form, while their mum goes foraging.
At nightfall she returns, and they wake up to feed and frolic about in the moonlight. Time passes and the seasons change. As winter approaches, their fur starts to turn white. Their best friend Thomas (a young ptarmigan) is also getting white feathers! Soon they will all be completely white, but where is the snow?
Maisie, Archie and their friend Thomas love to play hide-and-seek in the heather and tall grasses on the mountainside. During the summer and early autumn they are difficult to spot, and this keeps them safe from predators like the big golden eagle who would like to eat them!
Turning white in winter should keep them safe too, but the snow is coming later every year because of global warming and climate change. Hares and ptarmigans have not adapted to this change, so their white colouring makes them very visible against the brown autumn grasses. At the end of the story, Maisie, Archie and Thomas are so excited when the first flakes of snow start to fall. Now they can play hide-and-seek again!
Click on Maisie the Mountain Hare to see more images from the book. Available from 16 February from Floris Books in Edinburgh (and lots of other online bookshops). If you’re curious about puffins, red squirrels, wildcats or otters click HERE to see my whole range of Scottish wildlife rhyming picture books!