University of Southern Maine

As the seasons go by, the mystery vine grows and grows and grows. Now, finally, it is autumn, and the mystery vine is no longer a mystery.

Hello, pumpkins!

This is the season for jack-o'-lanterns, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin seeds—ready for toasting and munching, and for saving and planting come spring.

David's Drawings
By Cathryn Falwell
$8.95 Paperback
Ages 6-7

One wintry morning, David, a shy boy, spies a beautiful tree on his way to school. Before class begins, he gets a paper and pencil and draws its trunk and bare branches. Soon, his schoolmates look on and make suggestions: Amanda thinks the picture needs color, Laurel thinks "It needs a person-like me!" Ryan adds some leaves and Jamal contributes some cool stickers. Someone else says, "Birds would look nice." After they all add their own touches, David captions it "Our Class Picture" and hangs it on the bulletin board. On the way home, the child once again sees his tree and draws a new picture. When his sister says, "Nice drawing.-But it needs something," her suggestion is that it needs to hang on the wall. He adds the words "My Drawing" and tacks it above his bed. Falwell's cut-paper and fabric collages offer rich details of David's world. Snow banks billow across the hills, colorful tissue paper is used to create the classroom walls, and a small white "page" on the right side of each spread shows David's work as it progresses. In this gentle and appealing story, a boy figures out how to stay true to his own artistic vision while allowing his friends to express their own creativity.

Turtle Splash!: Countdown at the Pond
By Cathryn Falwell
$6.99 Paperback
Ages 5-6

"This lovely countdown features Eastern Painted Turtles and various insects, birds, and mammals sharing a pond habitat. As each new creature appears on the scene, one more turtle jumps off the log and into the water. Eventually, the blue sky of day gives way to rose and purple shades and all 10 tired turtles are underwater to "settle for the night." The familiar counting scheme plays out in beautifully constructed collage scenes. Many of the animals are quite realistic; some are less detailed. Birch bark and leaf prints add realism to the lush growth surrounding the melded blues and greens of the water. A white panel on either side of the double-page view contains a large blue numeral, the verse, and trailing bits of picture to soften the contrast. The pleasing glimpses of the shy turtles and their neighbors end with a satisfying recapping of the count in a night view lit with fireflies. Three final pages augment the pond visit with information on the behavior of each animal and brief instructions for making leaf prints. This is pleasing fare for reading aloud at bedtime, or anytime, and offers an inviting early nature lesson."
-Margaret Bush

Word Wizard
By Cathryn Falwell
$5.95 Paperback
Ages 6-7

"In this original picture book, Anna's eating a bowl of alphabet cereal when she discovers that the letters in her spoon can rearrange themselves to spell two different words. Anna becomes a "word wizard," making the changes happen at will. When she finds a little lost boy, she adds an m and turns his tears into a stream. When the stream flows into the ocean, she rearranges the letters to make a canoe. After a series of adventures, she takes the boy home, where she arms him against further catastrophes by turning the toy sword he carries into words. In an afterword, Falwell explains that Anna is making anagrams, and she encourages readers to play around with the idea by using magnetic letters, alphabet blocks, or pasta, or homemade letters from a variety of suggested materials. Brightly colored and full of action, the cut-paper collage illustrations make this an eye-catching introduction to anagrams. A book with great potential for the classroom. "
-Carolyn Phelan

Full Fathom Five - A Daughter's Search
By Mary Lee Coe Fowler
$29.95 Hardcover

This title presents one woman's quest for knowledge of her father lost at sea.Mary Lee Coe Fowler was a posthumous child, born after her father, a submarine skipper in the Pacific, was lost at sea in 1943. Her mother quickly remarried into a difficult and troubled relationship, and Mary Lee's biological father was never mentioned. It was not until her mother died and Mary Lee was a middle-aged adult that she set out to learn not only who her father was, but what happened to him and his crew, and why - and also to confront why she had shied away from asking these questions until it was nearly too late.Fowler searched through old ships' logs, letters, and naval communiques; visited submarine museums, the Naval Academy, and other pertinent sites; interviewed old friends and crew members who knew her dad and mom or served concurrently; and slowly reconstructed the world in which they lived. Beautifully written, Fowler's memoir reveals what she eventually learned: of the perils and hardships of submarine service in wartime, of the tragic irony of how her father's sub was probably lost, and of the long-term damage experienced by the families of those who do not come home from war.

Karel Hayes’s 2007 book, The Winter Visitors, won the Time of Wonder award from the Maine Discovery Museum and a bronze medal IPPY award for Best Children’s Picture Book. She has also illustrated numerous other children’s books, and her drawings and paintings have appeared in exhibitions nationally and in several magazines. She lives in Center Harbor, New Hampshire.

The Amazing Journey of Lucky the Lobster Buoy
By Karel Hayes
$16.95 Hardcover
For Ages 4-8

When Tim carves his first lobster buoy, its rough surface suggests a face. So he paints eyes on it, making it a buoy like no other. Tim names the buoy Lucky and, sure enough, it lives up to its name. Lucky's lobster trap is always filled, and the buoy's luck holds out even when Lucky becomes separated from his trap. After enduring amazing adventures at sea, the buoy finds its way back home to Tim.

Time for the Fair
By Mary Train
Illustrated by Karel Hayes
$15.95 Hardcover
For Ages 4-8

Grace loves the fair. She loves it so much, she keeps asking her mother if it is time for the fair again. But a whole year must pass before the fair returns. This is a simple story about how a child anxiously passes the time from one season to the next. The text descriptions are wonderfully evocative, and the story's rhythmic, seasonal flow and soft watercolor illustrations make it a great bedtime story.

Who's Been Here?: A Tale in Tracks
By Fran Hodgkins
Illustrated by Karel Hayes
$15.95 Hardcover
For Ages 4-8

Product Description
In this fun-filled and informative book, we take a winter walk with a rambunctious golden retriever Willy. Of course he leaves his paw prints in the snow. But there are other tracks, too, and none of them matches his. One by one, we find out what animals they belong to: a cat, a gull, a raccoon, a snowshoe hare, a bear, a moose, and-uh oh!-a skunk!

The Winter Visitors
By Karel Hayes
$16.95 Hardcover
For Ages 4-8

This charming and highly original story reveals what happens at a vacation cottage once the summer visitors have left for the winter. With fewer than two dozen words, the story is told primarily in pictures. Children and adults will revel in the activities of a family of bears that takes up residence in the empty camp.

The Cutting
By James Hayman
$24.95 Hardcover

When a missing 16-year-old is found with her nude body showing signs of torture and her heart removed with surgical precision while she was still alive, the violence of the crime has Portland, Maine, detective sergeant Mike McCabe recalling his days with the NYPD. The case takes on greater urgency with the abduction of another women and the discovery of other similar victims, all young, blond, and athletic. While local cardiac surgeon Philip Spencer assures McCabe that such hearts would not be viable transplant organs, the doctor’s lying and arrogance make him a prime suspect. As McCabe and partner Maggie Savage work tirelessly on the case, a French medical assistant and a former Miami reporter provide breakthrough information, and Spencer’s close friends from medical school come under scrutiny. First-novelist Hayman ratchets up the tension in this engrossing account of a deviously motivated psychopathic serial killer; if some aspects of the crimes strain credulity, it hardly matters, given the thrill of the ride.

Suburban Safari - A Year On The Lawn
By Hannah Holmes
$14.95 Paperback

When science and travel writer Holmes turned her attention to her suburban backyard, she discovered a community of wildlife desperately trying to survive in a sprawling world of "Wal-Marts and White-Crowned Sparrow Estates." Holmes manages to find signs of hope and humor amid the spread of civilization, and she reports animal activities in her yard with the fervor of Wild Kingdom's Marlin Perkins and the laconic glee of Garrison Keillor. "I'm a bit embarrassed to report that Cheeky has become the sun around which my world revolves," she confesses about her resident chipmunk. That small mammal is just one of the many creatures to whom Holmes gives names and personalities, but she keeps her naturalist credibility intact by inviting scientists and other experts to join her in her lawn chair vigil. With their help, she includes plenty of facts about the habits of common crows, insects, squirrels and even trees. Science and humor serve as well-managed launching points for environmental lessons. By the end of her year, Holmes has gently taught us that the American lawn is a pesticide-laden patchwork that's increasing by a million acres every year, that heating a house can produce five tons of pollutants annually and that stewardship of our own backyards is our responsibility.

Maine Street - Faces and Stories from a Small Town
By Patrisha McLean
$24.95 Hardcover

Photographer Patrisha McLean moved to the coastal town of Camden, Maine, 18 years ago and found it to be full of characters, in the quirky sense of the word and in terms of the word's other meaning, too-people of character. With camera and pen, McLean zooms in on 80 of her most memorable neighbors to create timeless portraits of the people that make one Maine town a truly representative slice of American life.

Slow Monkeys and Other Stories
By Jim Nichols
$15.95 Paperback

The men in Slow Monkeys, Jim Nichols's first book, mess up a lot. They abandon girlfriends, cheat on wives and fight in bars. From trailer parks or Salvation Army shelters, they rue their predicaments but are powerless to save themselves. Futility as a literary theme can grow wearying, but Nichols makes his characters come alive: the injured athlete who is sidelined, the father in a nursing home, the husband seeking to escape the crush of his growing family. Nichols has an unerring ear for dialogue; his characters don't utter a false word, even if some of them are balled up so tightly they rarely give us a glimpse of emotion. A brilliant exception is the collection's title story. ''Slow Monkeys'' is the term that Benjamin, a fat, slow-witted homeless man, uses to refer to himself and his friends who pick oranges in a Florida grove. However hopeless his life, Benjamin longs for something better. He imagines a boy, blessed with loving parents and a nice home, reading a book about his life -- about his star-crossed friends, the grove and the homeless shelter. ''My heart flutters with the idea of it all,'' Benjamin says.
-New Times Book Review

Tracing Paradise: Two Years in Harmony With John Milton, A Reader's Memoir
By Dawn Potter
$22.95 Paperback

One winter morning, poet Dawn Potter sat down at her desk in Harmony, Maine, and began copying out the opening lines of John Milton's Paradise Lost. Her intent was to spend half an hour with a poem she had never liked, her goal to transcribe a page or two. Maybe she would begin to appreciate the poet's art, though she had no real expectations that the exercise would change her mind about the poem. Yet what began as a whim turned rapidly into an obsession, and soon Potter was immersed in a strange and unexpected project: she found herself copying out every single word of Milton's immense, convoluted epic.
Tracing Paradise: Two Years in Harmony with John Milton is her memoir of that long task. Over the course of twelve chapters, Potter explores her very personal response to Milton and Paradise Lost, tracing the surprising intersections between a seventeenth-century biblical epic and the routine joys and tragedies of domestic life in contemporary rural Maine. Curious, opinionated, and eager, she engages with the canon on mutable, individual terms. Though she writes perceptively about the details and techniques of Milton's art, always her reactions are linked to her present-tense experiences as a poet, small-time farmer, family member, and citizen of a poor and beleaguered north-country town.

Water Dogs
By Lewis Robinson
$25.00 Hardcover

"Robinson's atmospheric and dreary first novel (after story collection Officer Friendly) revolves around a man gone missing in a blizzard. Bennie, a 20-something college dropout, scratches out a middling existence in rural Maine and lives with his taciturn brother, Littlefield, in their family's rotting mansion. The brothers don't have much going for them, and things get worse after a mishap during a paintball game. During the match, played during a blizzard, Bennie falls into a gorge and badly hurts himself, and a drifter member of the opposing team disappears. His body isn't recovered, and nobody's sure if he just picked up and left town or was murdered. But Littlefield and Bennie's friend Julian both call attention to themselves by behaving strangely, and when Bennie's twin sister, Gwen, comes back for a visit, she and Helen, a young woman working for Julian who catches Bennie's eye, help Bennie ferret out the truth about the missing man. Though the labored shifts between past and present detract from the narrative's understated power, Robinson does a magnificent job of painting a bleak and vivid picture of a rough-hewn community and the bonds that hold it together."

Slippery Men
By Penelope Schwartz Robinson
$14.95 Paperback

These personal essays feature a strong woman finding her place in the contemporary world and caring for herself and for others while a father ages and approaches death, and lovers arrive and depart.

Lee Sharkey works both on and off the grid as a writer, teacher, and editor. She is the recipient of the 2010 Maine Arts Commission's Individual Artist Fellowship in Literary Arts and the 1997 Rainmaker Award in Poetry. She lives in the woods outside of Farmington, Maine, with her husband, Al Bersbach, and stands in the weekly Women in Black peace vigil in front of the Farmington post office.

Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing
By Debra Spark
$19.95 Paperback

Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing is a book about what makes fiction work. In nine entertaining and instructive essays, novelist and master teacher Debra Spark pursues key questions that face both aspiring and accomplished writers, including: How does a writer find inspiration? What makes a story's closing line resonate? How can a writer "get" style? Where should an author "stand" in relation to his or her characters?

Good for the Jews
By Debra Spark
$24.00 Hardcover

Good for the Jews is a smart, funny, sexy novel set in Madison, Wisconsin, during the Bush administration. Part mystery and part stranger-comes-to town story, Good for the Jews is loosely based on the biblical book of Esther. Like Esther, Debra Spark's characters deal with anti-Semitism and the way that powerful men---and the women who love them---negotiate bureaucracies.
At the core of the story of right and wrong are young, attractive Ellen Hirschorn and her older cousin Mose, a high school teacher who thinks he knows, in fact, what is "good for the jews"---and for Ellen, too. Their stories intertwine with those of the school superintendent, his ex-wife and son, and a new principal. Workplace treachery, the bonds of family, coming of age, and romantic relationships all take center stage as the characters negotiate the fallout from a puzzling fire.

Around Again
By Suzanne Strempek Shea
$14.00 Paperback

Readers will relate to the ordinary people in this "gentle mystery." Robyn Panek, who spends summers on her Aunt Victory and Uncle Pal's Massachusetts farm, particularly enjoys leading young riders around the pony ring. However, during her 18th summer, something bizarre happened that was never properly explained or resolved. Now, many years later, Victory is no longer alive, Pal is terminally ill, and Robyn has been summoned to operate the pony ring one last season before closing the farm. The return of Lucy Dragon, a boarder who spent one summer on the farm before leaving under strange circumstances, appears to be a complication. However, Lucy has returned to make peace with the people she wronged that summer, and as a result Robyn is now able to face her past and gain some understanding of where her life is heading. A heartwarming story.

Don't Explain
By Betsy Sholl
$12.95 Paperback

"Dont Explain accomplishes that most difficult of tasks: the weaving together of seemingly unrelated events so that revelation unfolds effortlessly. These poems are what narrative can aspire tonamely, the grace and ease of the lyric rhapsody. And yet the charm of the anecdotes, her facility with line and image, never take precedence over the hard facts of our daily living.Rita Dove, Judge, Citation for 1997 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry These poems remind us that the most memorable verse is not merely the product of talent or skill (although Sholls poems have always possessed both of these things in abundance), but of something more raw and ineffablecall it courage. Dont Explain is an urgent and prophetic book."
- David Wojahn

Day Is Done
by Peter Yarrow
Illustrated by Melissa Sweet
$16.95 Hardcover
For Ages 4-8

Peter Yarrow follows the blockbuster success of Puff, the Magic Dragon with a picture book version of his beautiful song, “Day Is Done.”

As night falls, animal and human parents everywhere tenderly tuck their children into bed. In the darkness, each child—raccoon, doe, rabbit, field mouse, and a little boy—wonders: Will I be safe? Will you be there for me? And every mommy and daddy responds with the comforting words of Yarrow’s refrain: “I am here.” 

Caldecott Honor-winning artist Melissa Sweet has created gorgeous images that celebrate the loving bond between parent and child, as well as the connection between all creatures of the earth.

It is a rare talent, and only she can care for the Inn's herd. She feeds them, gathers their eggs, and tends to their injuries. But Mella dreams about the dragons of legend, even though hardly anyone believes they still exist. Dragons are small farm animals, not huge fire-breathing monsters. Everyone knows that. Until one day changes everything. A Knight of the Order of Defenders arrives at the Inn. Signs of the mythical dragons have led him there, he says. Then a simple errand takes Mella through the forest, where she stumbles across a dragon's egg—and faces the true, terrifying dragon guarding it. On the spot, Mella vows to get the egg safely to the fabled Hatching Grounds. She must leave her home for the first time, and she finds an unlikely companion in the Defender's squire, Roger.

For Mella and Roger, this one day is the beginning of an adventure. Where will it take them?

Imagine a place that makes you feel as free as a bird. Imagine a place where getting there is worth whatever it takes. Imagine a place that makes you feel like it's always been your destination. Imagine a place made out of pure imagination.

Abc's At The Zoo!: The Fun Way To Teach Your Child The Relationship Between Upper Case And Lower Case Letters
By Sandy S. Walling
$7.95 Paperback
Babies-Preschoolers

ABC's at the Zoo! is a brilliantly colored picture book that reinforces the relationships between upper case and lower case letters. The author/illustrator, Sandy Seeley Walling has drawn adult and baby animals to show that size and shape doesn't matter. Her creative use of the words: large/small; big/little; huge/tiny; tall/short and macro/micro help your child learn new size associations as well as letters. There is a glossary at the end of the book that offers interesting facts about each animal and define new words. A must have for parents and teachers.

A Day at the Beach: A Seaside Counting Book from One to Ten
By Sandy S. Walling
$6.95 Paperback
For Babies-Preschoolers

A Day at the Beach. A seaside counting book from one to ten., is a delightful book for parents, grandparents, teachers and friends to share with their children. You will travel from page to page adding objects that describe the numerals shown. In the case of "2, Two girls playing in the sand," the numeral 2, words two and girls, are all colored dark blue while the rest of the text is colored green. This sends a subliminal message to your child that the 2, two and girls are related. This system helps teach youngsters the relationship code needed to read. Your child will discover and count seagulls, dolphins, seagulls, octopus legs, sailboats and seashells. The brilliantly colored objects will delight everyone who explores this Day at the Beach adventure.

Emily Goes to Camp Lobster Claw
By Elain F. Shimberg
Illustrated by Sandy S. Walling
$7.95 Paperback
For Ages 9-12

Join Emily and her new friend's, the "Head Lighter's" in this first Emily camp adventure. Emily and her cabin mates take day trips exploring the wonder's of Maine. They visit Freeport, Camden, Rockland, Brunswick, Portland, Mount Katahdin, Cadillac Mountain, Bar Harbor, Rockland Breakwater, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, Bowdoin College, Peaks Island, Abby Museum, Wadsworth-Longfellow House, Portland Museum of Art, Children's Museum of Maine, Portland Head Light, Appalachian Trail, Percival P. Baxter, and Baxter State Park.

Max, the Magical Moose
By Elaine. F. Shimberg
Illustrated by Sandy S. Walling
$7.95 Paperback

Max, the Magical Moose is the third collaborative effort by team Shimberg/Walling. This fun adventure takes youngsters to the wonderful world of Max and his magical powers. Max uses his magic for good never bad and helps lots of his friends who need him. Max fixes a broken light house lamp, a broken beaver dam and returns his beached friend Walter the Whale to the ocean, by repeating: "Magical mischief and buzz like a bee, when I pound my hoof, then happy you will be!"

Bar Kochba: From the Death Camp at Auschwitz to the Battle for Jerusalem: A Warrior's Journey
By Ernest Weiss
$34.95 Paperback

As a young Jewish boy in pre-war Hungary, Avrum has a physically poor but spiritually rich life. The eldest of seven children, he becomes the breadwinner when his father is sent away to forced labor. The situation worsens when the entire family is sent to the Auschwitz death camp in a crowded, stinking cattle car. But even in the horror, there is hope. Avrum meets a young girl, and from the shadow of death comes life. Astoundingly, Avrum survives the camps. Now an orphan, he makes the desperate choice to preserve his people in a land of their own. From the fires of Auschwitz to the battle of Jerusalem, his story is the journey of a warrior. To establish this role, he takes a new name, a name which resounds in history. He becomes Avrum bar Kochba.