NH Author Goes Green

The March 10, 2008 issue of Publisher's Weekly included an article about CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm, Gary Hishberg. According to the article, the production of his recent book, Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World (Hyperion, 2008) was 100% green. The publisher estimates that the production methods used saved (among other things) 67 trees and 28,769 gallons of water.

Real Bookstores

The newsletter from Gibson's Bookstore (Concord, NH) was in my email today. In it Michael Herrmann, the owner of Gibson's, makes a compelling argument for shopping in bricks and mortar bookstores rather than online. Do you agree? If you buy your books online, what drives that choice? Please share your thoughts by adding a comment below.

Book of the Week #13

La Rosa Chronicles: Spiderling by K Spirito (Portsmouth, NH: Peter E. Randall, 2006)

This thriller is the fifth volume of the La Rosa Chronicles by New Hampshire author K Spirito.

"The world is on the verge of destruction and the epicenter lies beneath Granite Mountain, New Hampshire. While attending Ecology Camp, Katrina Waters gets caught up in a terrorist sleeper cell. All she wants is her own identity and destiny -- not the one her father wants for her and not the one that terrorists intend for her. Who will stop Judgement Day? The forces within the government, an overprotective father, or a bunch of brainwashed kids?"
-- back cover

2008 Letters About Literature Winners

Several weeks ago we announced the names of the 25 students whose letters were selected as New Hampshire semi-finalists in the 2008 Letters About Literature competition. The letters written by those students were reviewed by a panel of judges here in New Hampshire who selected the winners. This year's judges were NHSL Youth Services Coordinator, Ann Hoey; author Diane Mayr; attorney Donna Esposito; Susan Jenna, a teacher at Three Rivers School; Kristen Truncellito, an English teacher at Concord High School; and poet Mimi White.

The 2008 New Hampshire LAL winners are:

• Livie Lane, a 9th grader at Dover High School
• Sydnie Spencer, of Lee, an 8th grader at Oyster River Middle School
• Angela Wang, a 4th grader at Charlotte Avenue School, Nashua

Book of the Week #12

The Art and Soul of the Souhegan Valley by Gail Maloney (Hollis, NH: Gail Maloney Photography, 2007)

The Souhegan Valley is made up of 13 towns and villages west of Nashua, New Hampshire. This collection of beautifully reproduced color photographs depicts the area -- as it looks today -- through the eyes Hollis native Gail Maloney. Festivals, town meetings, politicians, farms, main streets, artistans, local industry, and the natural beauty of this corner of the Granite State are all here.

2008 Ladybug Nominees

The Ladybug Picture Book Award committee has chosen the nominees for the 2008 Ladybug Picture Book Award. New Hampshire children, from preschool to third grade will select the winning picture book when they vote in November 2008.

• Bebe Goes Shopping by Susan Middleton Elya, illustrated by Steven Salerno (Harcourt, 2006)
• Dog Needs a Bone! by Audrey Wood (Blue Sky, 2007)
• Duck at the Door by Jackie Urbanovic (HarperCollins, 2007)
• Help! A Story of Friendship by Holly Keller (Greenwillow, 2007)
• The Magic Rabbit by Annette LeBlanc Cate (Candlewick, 2007)
• The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend, illustrated by John Manders (Candlewick, 2007)
• When Dinosaurs Came with Everything by Elise Broach, illustrated by David Small (Atheneum, 2007)
• The Wizard by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Brandon Dorman (Greenwillow, 2007)
• Woolbur by Leslie Helakoski, illustrated by Lee Harper (HarperCollins, 2008)
• Would I Ever Lie to You? by Caralyn Buehner, illustrated by Jack E. Davis (Dial, 2007)

Voting materials will be posted on the Ladybug web page in June. If you want to get ahead of the crowd you can go ahead and order your Ladybug Stickers anytime.

Book of the Week #11

Rebecca Wentworth's Distraction: A Novel by Robert J. Begiebing. (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2003)

This is a story of art and obsession set in 18th century New Hampshire. It is the final volume in an historical New England trilogy that includes The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin and The Adventures of Allegra Fullerton. Robert Begiebing is on the faculty at Southern New Hampshire University, a graduate of UNH, a member of the NH State Council on the Arts, and (according to Annie Proulx in the New York Times) a "gifted writer with an extraordinary feeling for the past."

Poetry Society of NH Contests

The Poetry Society of New Hampshire sponsors several contests for poets, including two for New Hampshire students. Winning poems will be published in the quarterly magazine, The Poets’ Touchstone, and winners will receive a copy of the issue in which their poems appear.There is a $1 entry fee per poem, and a May 1st postmark deadline for both contests. There are strict guidelines which must be followed so write to the appropriate contest coordinator and ask for those before sending your poems.

• For younger students, in first through third grade, contact Barbara Bald, Primary Contest Coordinator, 21 Finethy Road, Alton, NH 03809.
• For the contest open to High School students contact Pat Frisella, HS Contest Coordinator, 31 Reservoir Road, Farmington, NH 03835.

The Poetry Society of New Hampshire is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to promoting poetry. Look for their booth at the Made in NH Expo April 4th, 5th and 6th at the NH National Guard armory in Manchester, NH.

Book of the Week #10

The Beginnings of Dr. Seuss: An Informal Reminiscence by Theodor Seuss Geisel; edited by Edward Connery Lathem together with an introduction by President James Wright. (Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College, 2004)

Theodor Geisel graduated from Dartmouth in 1925. His first book as Dr. Seuss-- And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street -- was published in 1937 after it had been rejected by 27 different publishers.

This volume is the tale of what happened between those two events, mostly in Geisel's own words. It was originally published in the April 1976 number of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine and was published in this volume in commemoration of the one-hundredth anniversary of Geisel's birth. He was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Mass.

The image I chose for this week is the title page of the book which includes the Dr. Seuss postage stamp issued in 2004.

Letters About Literature New Hampshire Semi-finalists Have Been Selected

Letters About Literature is a reading and writing promotion program of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, presented in partnership with Target Stores and coordinated in New Hampshire by the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library. To enter, young readers wrote a personal letter to an author explaining how his or her work changed their view of the world or themselves. Readers selected authors from any genre—fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic.

This year there were 220 letters received from New Hampshire students. Twenty-five semi-finalists were selected at three competition levels (upper elementary, middle school, and high school) by a panel of judges working on behalf of the Library of Congress. These letters are being reviewed by a panel of judges here in New Hampshire who will select the winning letters for New Hampshire by mid-March. The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library will award $100 to each first place winner. State winners will advance to the national competition where they could win a $500 Target GiftCard and a $10,000 LAL Reading Promotion Grant for their community.

Five Colleges Booksale

Enjoy one of the oldest and largest book sales in New England -- The Five Colleges Booksale -- held at Lebanon High School in Lebanon, NH on Saturday, April 19, 9 to 5 and Sunday, April 20, 11 to 4. There will be 35–40,000 books in all fields, including childrens’ books and games, in good condition and carefully sorted. In addtion: maps, prints, computer materials, CDs, video and cassette tapes, DVDs, music and amazing ephemera—our famous collection of odds, ends, bits, and snippets found among the books as we sort them. There is ample parking and admission is FREE. Saturday includes a morning sealed-bid auction of special items and all-day discounts on sales over $200. Most things half-price Sunday. Proceeds help support Vermont and New Hampshire scholarship students at Mt. Holyoke, Simmons, Smith, Vassar. and Wellesley. Dealers welcome.

MacDowell Downtown presents Mary Johnson

This Friday, March 7, at 7:30pm at the Peterborough Historical Society, there will be a reading and talk with writer Mary Johnson of Nashua, New Hampshire presented by MacDowell Downtown.
Johnson's life has been a fascinating and inspiring journey of spirituality and humanitarianism, having trained as a nun as a young woman before serving Mother Teresa in her missions around the world. Her two decades of intense study and prayer led to social work with shut-ins, gypsies, refugees, prisoners, and the homeless in such places as the Bronx, New York; Washington, DC; Winnipeg, Ontario, Canada; and Rome, Italy. Spending a total of 15 years in Rome, Johnson eventually became one of Mother Teresa's most trusted nuns. And yet, in spite of the fulfilling work and their relationship, Johnson had begun to confront the fact that her world view was shifting to one of a more secular nature. "The community was becoming more narrow minded, while I was becoming more broad minded," she explains. In the spring of 1997, she told Mother Teresa of her decision to leave the order. "It is not easy to disappoint one of the world's most admired women," she admits. Johnson is currently working on a memoir about the 20 years she spent as a missionary, and the internal transformation she experienced that affected her outlook on life and her opinion of organized religion. "I believe that telling my story can bring hope to many people who struggle with questions of faith, meaning, and religiously-imposed guilt," she says. It promises to be a thought-provoking evening.