Hazel Hutchins and Gail Herbert.  Mattland
Annick Press  $8.95  ISBN 978-1-55451-120-4  32 pg.
Reviewed by Heather, Age 13

Sticks became a farmhouse, a piece of tin a barn.  Fuzzy seeds became sheep in the pasture.  He was just plucking a seventh sheep from his sock when he noticed something that had not been there before.

An outsider had arrived in Mattland.

Matt has just arrived in his new neighbourhood and is not pleased with his parents at all for moving…yet again!  He can’t find anything to do and it’s always raining there. …this was the worst place of all. Everywhere was mud and water. Then he finds a stick - the key to a new land.

Mattland is a very creative and imaginative tale.  I love the way the authors Hutchins and Herbert have described the ‘new land’ and how illustrator Dusan Petricic creates the pictures using watercolours and pen and ink.  Using just the right amount of colour for the dreary neighbourhood, Petricic’s images fit the growing storyline nicely.

Mattland gets 5 watery stars. A must read for all Mattlanders aged 4 and up.