Book report: Maine writers inspired by the great outdoors
Autumn on the coast of Harpswell, Maine. Photo: Raine Raynor
Compiled and edited by Raine Raynor
WHAT MADE YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH MAINE? Ask a Mainer this question and, sooner or later, the conversation turns to the great outdoors. Whether exploring the local woods, stargazing under a magnificent dark sky, or stumbling upon a secret swimming hole, everyone has their own story of finding wonder in our wild state. It’s no surprise, then, that Maine is home to many writers inspired by the great outdoors. Our islands, forests, mountains and coast abound in stories just waiting to be told.
We asked our friends at Longfellow Books in Portland and Royal River Books in Yarmouth for their favorite nature-inspired books from the Pine Tree State. Here’s a selection perfect for a picnic or a day by the water—and one that will make you love Maine a little more with every page.
LB: recommended by Longfellow Books | RRB: recommended by Royal River Books | GHM: recommended by Green & Healthy Maine editors
Books for children and young adults
The First Blade of Sweetgrass
BY SUZANNE GREENLAW AND GABRIEL FREY; ILLUSTRATED BY NANCY BAKER
Written by a Maliseet scientist and a 12th-generation Passamaquoddy basket maker, this beautiful picture book combines the indigenous history of Maine with a conservationist sensibility. The First Blade of Sweetgrass follows a Wabanaki girl who accompanies her grandmother for the first time to harvest sweetgrass. As they pick, the grandmother explains the significance of sweetgrass in the Native culture to which it is bound, making it all the more important that it be preserved for future generations. –LB
Skywatcher
BY JAMIE HOGAN
Skywatcher is a wonderful introduction to stargazing for children. Written and illustrated by Peaks Island author Jamie Hogan, this spectacular picture book captures the magic of a truly dark sky, something so few people get to see these days. I grew up hours from a real city and was routinely dragged out of bed for meteor showers or the chance to see the northern lights, so the story and illustrations brought back happy childhood memories of nights spent searching for constellations. It also includes a guide with information about stars, nocturnal creatures and dark sky preserves in the U.S. and Canada. It’s a real treat for budding scientists or kids who might be afraid of the dark—what a great way to show them just how beautiful darkness can be. –LB
The Acadia Files: Book One, Summer Science
BY KATIE COPPENS; ILLUSTRATED BY HOLLY HATAN
Acadia Greene wants answers. Who keeps stealing her blueberries just as they ripen on the bushes? Why is her hair curly? Why does the sun wake her up so early in the summer? Why does the tide submerge her sandcastles? How do rocks become sand? Acadia doesn’t set out to do science, but she has these important questions, and her scientist parents refuse to simply feed her the answers. “Conduct an experiment,” they tell her. “Use the scientific method.” So Acadia gathers evidence, formulates hypotheses, designs experiments, uses the results to test her hypotheses and draws conclusions. This is the first in a four-book series written by a Maine middle school teacher, with one book for each season (ages 9–12). –RRB
The Maine Birthday Book
BY TONYA SHEVENELL; ILLUSTRATED BY LAURA WINSLOW
A children’s book celebrating the wildlife, geography and magic of Maine through the birthday stories and special wishes of animal friends. When a thoughtful chickadee asks his friends from all over Maine’s woods, waterways and wilderness what they would wish for for their birthdays, the stories come pouring out. Join Doodles, a puffin from Knox County; Socks, a black bear from Penobscot County; Chester, a snowshoe hare from Franklin County and the rest of the animal friends for a party to be enjoyed any day of the year. Author Tonya Shevenell is a Portland native. –RRB
How to Catch a Keeper!
BY STEPHANIE MULLIGAN; ILLUSTRATED BY CONNIE RAND
Author Stephanie Mulligan grew up in a beautiful village in western Maine and spent several summers working aboard the lobster boat The Lucky Catch. She learned many interesting facts about lobstering in Maine and shares them in this delightful children’s book, along with an illustrated “Lobstering Lingo” glossary. Follow Luke and Layla’s adventure as they go lobstering and learn about Casco Bay. Illustrator Connie Rand is from Lincoln. –RRB
Books for adults
Loon Lessons
BY JAMES D. PARUK
Even those who know the loon’s call might not recognize it as a tremolo, yodel or wail, nor understand what each call means, how it’s made, and why. And those who marvel at the loon’s diving prowess might wonder why this bird has such skill, or where loons go when they must leave northern lakes in winter. For these and many other mysteries, Loon Lessons provides evolutionary and ecological explanations that are thought-provoking and compelling. Written by a Maine professor who is one of the world’s foremost experts on loons, this book is a compendium of information about the common loon and an engaging record of scientific sleuthing that documents more than twenty-five years of research into the great northern diver. –RRB
The Lowering Days
BY GREGORY BROWN
Evocative, atmospheric and pulsating with the rhythms of the natural world, The Lowering Days is a meditation on the flow and weight of history, an exploration of the power and fragility of love, an examination of the dangerous fault lines underlying families and an offering to an enduring land where stories are created and told. The book is set along the Penobscot River, where author Gregory Brown grew up. –LB
Hatchet Island
BY PAUL DOIRON
When a sea-kayaking venture takes Maine game warden Mike Bowditch and girlfriend Stacey Stevens to an archipelago serving as a research center and sanctuary for endangered seabirds, they find two murdered researchers, and a third is missing. The number of suspects grows to include the sanctuary’s conveniently absent owner and an arrogant artist who rules over his own island kingdom. The 13th installation in Doiron’s Mike Bowditch series, Hatchet Island is another winner for the author. Paul Doiron was born in Maine and grew up hunting and fishing in Scarborough. –LB
Maine Oysters: Stories of Resilience and Innovation
BY WILLIAM PERNA
The Maine Coast has long been famed for its dramatic beauty and for the toughness, work ethic, ingenuity and humor of its fishermen. Now a burgeoning number of new and veteran fishermen are responding to the decline of old, wild-caught fisheries by using their risk-taking, resilient natures and biological breakthroughs to become farmers of the sea, especially of the world’s most beloved bivalves—oysters. Up and down the coast, they’re creating a new form of this industry in Maine that’s becoming a model for other aquaculturists around the world. And these intrepid entrepreneurs are doing this in a natural environment whose changes have been caused by global warming, even in the face of NIMBYism as they respond to Americans’ growing appetite for their delicious crops. Thanks to their efforts, they’re making the coastal waters where they farm healthier for all life while brightening the social and economic future of Maine’s coastal communities. Author William Perna is the executive producer of the South Freeport media company Perna Content. –RRB
Islands of Time
BY BARBARA KENT LAWRENCE
Set in Downeast Maine, Islands of Time follows a decades-long romance between a summer girl and a local boy. When Becky Granger falls in love with Ben Bunker, the son of a Downeast fisherman, Becky is only fourteen. In 1958, social norms don’t allow a summer girl to love a year-round boy, yet she does. When Becky’s father dies, loss and anger overpower her and she commits a sin that almost destroys her. She escapes from her life through fantasy until she returns to Maine as an adult and struggles to come to terms with the past. A sequel, The Other Island: Ben’s Story, switches perspectives and follows Ben’s life as a fisherman and biologist. –GHM
The Field House: A Writer’s Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine
BY ROBIN CLIFFORD WOOD
The Field House is a hybrid of biography and memoir that recounts the life of Rachel Field, a renowned author, poet and playwright from the 1920s to the 1940s. Robin Clifford Wood and her husband buy Field’s once-cherished summer home in the 1990s, and Wood soon falls under the spell of the island, house and Field herself, whose presence whispers from the dusty corners and creaking floorboards. It took Wood ten years to uncover the mysteries surrounding Field’s life, ten years that transformed her own life and career. –RRB
This photo of the Milky Way above Oak Pond in Skowhegan, Maine was shot by John Meader of Fairfield, Maine in 2019.