Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert
This brightly colored alphabet book follows A through Z in a romp up a coconut tree that gradually bows under the weight of so many. When the tree collapses, each letter is affected: there is “stubbed toe E” and “patched up F,” while “M is looped, N is stooped, and O is twisted alley-oop.” Creative rhymes and a few phrases composed of playful nonsense words (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, for one) make read-aloud essential, as well as a delight for both parent and child. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a wonderful introduction to the alphabet for very young children, and a good easy-reading book for slightly older children. This text is part of Born to Read’s curriculum. (Diane Magras)
Boris’s Glasses by Peter Cohen, illustrated by Olof Landstrom
Young Boris, an endearing woodchuck, needs glasses. Newly bespectacled and proudly describing himself as “an astigmatic,” he gets a job as a supervisor in a factory, only to discover that much of the world, when actually brought into focus, falls short of how he imagined it would be. A fun story is made truly wonderful with illustrations by the brilliant Swedish illustrator Olaf Landstrom, whose simple illustrations are both beautiful and entertaining. (Erik Jorgensen)
The Carpet Boy’s Gift by Pegi Shea
What is it really like for the children sold to sweatshops? Is there any hope? Maine’s own Tilbury House Publishers has published a picture book about modern slavery, which includes a real child, Iqbal Masih, who started a movement among children to liberate themselves from their circumstances. Not only is this a great story for ages 8 and above, but the final four pages are a resource for people wishing to take action. This text is used in the new Freedom series for New Books, New Readers. (Carolyn Sloan)
Unbowed by Wangari Maathai
In her 2006 memoir, the 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate recalls her childhood in rural Kenya, her education at Catholic schools in Kenya and Kansas, and her years as a Ph.D. candidate and professor at the University of Nairobi. She describes her harrowing experiences with the Kenyan government in the 1980s and 90s as she fought for democracy and environmental protection. The organization she founded in 1975, the Green Belt Movement, now has an international reach. It is responsible for the planting of millions of trees and the empowerment of millions of rural women and men.
Maathai’s life work has been to “expand our conception of peace and security to encompass protecting the environment, ensuring the equitable and sustainable use of natural resources, and raising awareness of the linkages between ecological stress and conflict.” This message resonates with me as Born to Read develops its Peaceable Stories initiative. The last section of the Peaceable Stories Activity & Resource Guide is “Peace for the Environment and our Planet.” The introduction to this section states, “It’s not necessary to pretend that toddlers can single-handedly save endangered animals or reverse global warming! Simply by helping children to recognize the impact of their own actions, each caregiver takes a step towards building a more peaceful world.” I think Wangari Maathai would agree. (Brita Zitin)
Back to the TopSpeaking of Chinese by Raymond and Margaret Chang
This little volume offers a lively and engaging history of the Chinese language - who would believe that such a book could be hard to put down? But it is, and my guess is that it will appeal to anyone with even a passing interest in Chinese culture. The Changs deftly explore the links between calligraphy, idiom, geography and history. It has been used in the MHC’s teacher program Views of the East. (Erik Jorgensen)
The Snoring Bird: My Family’s Journey through a Century of Biology by Bernd Heinrich.
Are you a fan of writing by naturalists-those people who study nature in the raw? Do you like history of the World War era? Bernd Heinrich was born on land contested by the Germans and Poles, and escaped west across Germany with part of his family just ahead of the invading Russians. The family settled in Maine, and Bernd was left at Hinckley Goodwill farm while his parents searched for new specimens of ichneumon wasps all over the world. After years of searching for his own niche, and disagreeing with his father along the way, he found his father’s letters and records, looked at his father’s life with new perspective, and wrote this book about his father, and incidentally, about himself. (Carolyn Sloan)
Evelyn Waugh, The Sword of Honour Trilogy
Evelyn Waugh wrote The Sword of Honour Trilogy about his experiences in World War II. Guy Crouchback, a Catholic expatriate Englishman, returns to his mother country to fight in the war. Being over 30, he finds it difficult at first for anyone to take his patriotic wish seriously, until he meets a Halberdier major who connects him with a regiment. There, Guy, known as “Uncle” for his age, adopts the ceremony of the Royal Corps of Halberdiers with all his heart. Odd characters abound: the bluff and booming Apthorpe with his “thunderbox,” the poetic and ruthless intellectual Ludovic, the aging wild man Brigadier Ben Ritchie-Hook, and Guy’s ex-wife Virginia, who left Guy for a series of other men, and who cannot understand why the war must take away her lavish lifestyle. The three books have Waugh’s customary airy style but use clever language to make succinct points about characters’ motivations. They are each quick reads, but powerful and poignant, and lead into one another like one enormous book. (Diane Magras)
Cordelia Underwood: Or, The Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League by Van Reid.
If you enjoy Maine history, a compelling and rollicking (yet gentle) story, you may just want to read Cordelia Underwood. This is the first book of a delightful series of interwoven stories written by Van Reid, an author who lives in Edgcomb, Maine. Set in Portland and the great woods of Maine in the summer of 1898, it is the story of lovely young Cordelia Underwood of Portland who finds that she has inherited a large tract of land in Northern Maine which also holds a mystery. In her quest to see the land, and to decipher the secret it holds, she finds aid from a remarkable and eccentric assortment of characters: Tobias Walton, a wise man who possesses an amiable and adventurous spirit; Ephram, Eagleton and Thump, the bumbling, sincere, and kind founders of the Moosepath League; Sundry Moss, not to be confused with his brother, Varius; and many others as nefarious forces try to hinder Cordelia and steal the treasure.
In true Dickensian fashion, the characters and plots are many, interesting, wild, humorous, and varied- but all come together in the end. Reading the novel is like going back into time- Reid has researched the history of Portland and the other Maine towns featured in the book, and the detail he includes brings the period and the towns to life. Like Dickens, whom Reid obviously admires, Reid originally published the novel in installments in the local newspaper, forcing him to keep the action moving and to work to create a strong bond between the readers and the characters. (Elizabeth Sinclair)
Back to the TopThe Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz
is a panoramic saga of three generations of an Egyptian merchant family. Don’t let the size dissuade you - the three books are divided into short and compelling chapters that render perfectly the feel, the smells, the customs and the experience of living in what on the surface appears to be a very different culture, but in the end come down to universal experiences that seem entirely familiar. It’s hard to put these books down as the narrative winds its way from the era of World War I into the 1950’s Peter Aicher introduced these books through his 2005 MHC Community Seminar. (Erik Jorgensen)
Notes from an Open Book welcomes feedback from its readers. Please contact Diane Magras by email at diane@mainehumanities.org or by phone at (207)773-5051 ext. 208 (toll-free 1-866-637-3233, ext. 208) to respond.