I’m going to try to make this post a weekly ritual, beginning with picture books from and about the state of Maine, way up north. With fifty states to travel to, by way of the best picture books I can find, this journey should take about a year.
Maine
- Motto: Dirigo/ I Lead
- Nickname: The Pine Tree State; The Vacation State
- State Flower: White Pine Cone and Tassel
- State Bird: Chickadee
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. Viking, 1948. This first book is an old favorite. Wandering Sal meets a Mother Bear while the bee’s cub manages to follow Sal’s mother by mistake. “Little Bear and Little Sal’s mother and Little Sal and Little Bear’s mother were all mixed up with each other among the blueberries on Blueberry Hill.”
One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey. Viking, 1952. Sal again, but now she’s a big sister with a little sister named Jane, and Sal has a loose tooth, which makes her a big girl now. The day also holds a trip to the beach to dig clams and a trip to Buck’s Harbor and various other ups and downs as Sal shares with everyone she meets the story of her lost tooth.
Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey. Viking, 1957. One summer on an island off the coast of Maine. “Out on the islands that poke their rocky shores above the waters of Penobscot Bay, you can watch the time of the world go by, from minute to minute, hour to hour, from day to day.”
The Finest Horse in Town by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. Illustrated by Susan Gaber. HarperCollins, 1992. This book is based on the stories that the author heard about her mother’s aunts who owned a dry goods store in a small town in Maine back in the early twentieth century. The story itself is fiction, what might have happened to the sisters and their wonderful horse.
Island Boy by Barbara Cooney. Viking Kestrel, 1988. Along with McCloskey, Barbara Cooney is probably the most well known Maine children’s author. Island Boy is about Matthias who lives Tibbets Island. Matthias is baby of twelve children, and although travels as a sailor and down the east coast, he finally comes back to Tibbets Island to live. Sad ending, but a wonderful family story.
Birdie’s Lighthouse by Deborah Hopkinson. Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. Aladdin, 1996. Bertha Holland tells the story in her journal of how she learned to help her papa keep the lights burning in the lighthouse on Turtle Island. Beautiful illustrations make the tale of Birdie’s bravery and diligence even more exciting.
The Stranded Whale by Jane Yolen. Illustrated by Melanie Cataldo. Candlewick, 2015. This lovely picture book, about some children who find a beached whale and try to save it, is really sad. Not for sensitive readers, but the story is realistic and as the author’s note in the back of the book says, “Beachings are always sad, . . . but the good news is that they don’t affect whale species as a whole.”
Surrounded by Sea: Life on a New England Fishing Island by Gail Gibbons. Holiday House, 1991. Does everyone in Maine live or at least summer on an island? This book presents life on a Maine island in a simple, factual manner. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like Gail Gibbons’ straightforward, just-the-facts style of writing.
The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen. Candlewick, 2009. Based on a true story, The Circus Ship is anything but just the facts, m’am. In rollicking, rhyming text, a ship carrying at least fifteen exotic circus animals is wrecked off the coast of Maine, and in Van Dusen’s story, the animals all swim to a nearby island (an island again!) and find a home among the village people there. It’s wildly imaginative, but still Maine-ish with white clapboard houses and New England-looking dress and signage.
I couldn’t find copies of these other three picture books about Maine that I found while researching online. If anyone knows about them and wants to recommend, please leave a comment. Or if you know of other picture books set in Maine that give a true flavor of the state, please share.
- Andre the Famous Harbor Seal by Fran Hodgkins. Illustrated by Yetti Frenkel. Down East Books, 2003.
- Lobsterman by Dahlov Ipcar. Down East Books, 1962.
- The Story of the Sea Glass by Anne Dodd. Illustrated by Mary Beth Owens. Down East Books, 1999.
Next Saturday: VERMONT
My children (and I) loved Barbara Cooney ‘ s Miss Rumphius.
We have Lobsterman; it is similar to Time of Wonder. It is a delightful book about a lobsterman and his son, telling about all the things that a lobsterman has to do when “fishing” and when not. The illustrations are black and white, tri-color, and full color, but they are prints.
There is series of alphabet books that cover all the states (and a lot of other places/things) by Sleeping Bear Press. We have a few of them, but not Maine. It is called L is for Lobster: A Maine Alphabet. We like the ones we have.