Book of the Week (3/9/2026)

Spirits of Amoskeag: The Wounded Heroes of the Manchester Mills by Lois Hermann (Light Publishing, 2016)

This enthralling book was the answer to a promise made many years ago, a commitment given to a group of spirits who caused accidents to get attention. They agreed to stop their activity and go into the light if we would publish their story. This spiritual mystery shares their heart-wrenching stories woven through the journey of the book itself. This is the fascinating story communicated by the Spirits of Amoskeag, The Wounded Heroes of the Manchester Mills.

This story is both compelling and important. In the mid-1800s, Manchester, New Hampshire boasted the longest continuous millyard in the world, producing incredible amounts of cloth daily. The information revealed in this book is part of the fabric that makes up local history. Many people suffered greatly in the name of big business, and their stories deserve to be told. This is the story of the children who worked in the mills and the crimes that were committed upon the children by those in charge. Everyone was affected by what was known as the “Great Unspeakable.” This intense story was guided by Guardian Spirits, told by the spirits of the children and others from the time of the great Amoskeag mills, and includes the story of those placed on our path to create this book. Having been safely guided into the light, many spirits have returned to express deep gratitude for our assistance. They want to be remembered for the hard-working, dedicated young people they were. May we be inspired to take care of our children, that we may better ensure a healthy society. This is not just a ghost story…this is a rescue mission! --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Born in Yokohama, Japan, a military daughter who traveled the world, she settled in New Hampshire to raise her children. With a successful career as a multi-registered medical professional, corporate trainer, clinical director, and pioneer in the field of diagnostic imaging, Lois is now a success coach and clinical hypnotist. Lois helps children and adults to achieve their goals. Her extensive training in advanced hypnosis techniques includes the Spirit Releasement Therapy that is demonstrated in this book. Involved with integrative medicine since the early ’90s, Lois blends her traditional medical background with her corporate expertise into client sessions and presentations.

3 on a Theme: New England 2

New England Shipbuilding: Vessels That Made History by Glenn A. Knoblock

Floor Burns: A Wild Journey Across the Forgotten Backroads of NAIA Basketball in New England by Mike Whaley 

New England Fairies: A History of the Little People of the Hills and Forests by Andrew Warburton

Book of the Week (3/2/2026)

Where the Water Meets the Sky: A Novel by Diane Les Becquets (Simon & Schuster, 2026)

On a night in January, on the Garden Peninsula of Michigan, a farmhouse burns to the ground. A young child makes it out and flees into the woods with a book of matches in her hand.

Ten years later, Abby, a lover of birds and the natural world, returns to Garden, to the woods and lakes and farms and fisheries of her childhood, to assist her uncle on an environmental study of trees. Her best friend, Brew, invites her to a party where she meets a troubled girl named Seda, on the run from her abusive ex. Abby sets out to protect Seda and introduces her to an abandoned cabin that becomes a sanctuary for them both. Here, Abby begins to process her unrequited feelings for Brew while also discovering the person she is becoming. She wants more for her life, a hunger both spiritual and physical, and seeks to understand the trauma of her childhood that took her mother from her. Abby cares deeply for the people and flora and fauna around her and identifies with the wounds of the environment. She is desperate to remember what happened the night of the fire and as the summer of 1996 unfolds, Abby will be forced to reckon with the truth.

Perfect for fans of the lush and tender nature writing of Helen Macdonald and Richard Powers, Where the Water Meets the Sky is a coming-of-age novel that expertly delves into the connection between our perception of ourselves and our natural environs. It is a paean to the vast and beautiful wildscape around us and to the power of community and the wisdom of love. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Diane Les Becquets is most at home writing about strong characters whose lives are physically and emotionally connected to their natural environments. She has worked alongside archaeologists, wildlife biologists, conservation canine handlers, and foresters, and spends much of her free time exploring remote landscapes and wilderness areas. Ingrained in all of this is her love of story and her attention to the individual lives of those who inhabit those settings. She also enjoys snowshoeing, archery, swimming, kayaking still waters, and backpacking. She lives in the northern woods of New Hampshire and serves as a professor of English and program director at Southern New Hampshire University.

Ladybug 2026 Shortlist

The first round of Ladybug Picture Book Award voting closed earlier this week and we are ready to move on to round 2.

Eighty-five people weighed in on the long list of nominees and we have eliminated from consideration any title that did not get at least 7 votes. This left us with a shortlist of 18 titles from which NH librarians are invited to vote for the 9 titles that they think should be nominated for the 2026 Ladybug Picture Book Award.
 
The Final Round 2026 Ladybug Nomination Survey is now open and will remain open until Sunday, 3/22/2026.

PLEASE NOTE that you can only vote once from your device (phone, computer, whatever you use to browse the web) so don't preview the survey, as you will not be able to go back again to vote.

To help make sure as many people as possible in the NH library community have an opportunity to check out these books before voting for the final nominees, we have linked each of the titles below to a video of the book being read. We did not create any of these videos; they are from a variety of sources. Where there was a version available read by the author, we chose that, otherwise we chose the best depiction of the book that we could find.
 
2026 Ladybug Picture Book Award Shortlist:

Aggie and the Ghost by Matthew Forsythe
The Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake by Devin Elle Kurtz
Bear and the Three Goldilocks by Patrick Horn and Dan Yaccarino
Broken by X. Fang
Cat Nap by Brian Lies
Cranky, crabby crow (saves the world) by Corey R. Tabor
The Day the Books Disappeared by Joanna Ho, Caroline Kusin Pritchard and Dan Santat
Don't Trust Fish by Neil Sharpson  and Dan Santat
The Humble Pie by Jory John and Pete Oswald 
If I Built a Town by Chris Van Dusen
If We Were Dogs by Sophie Blackall
The Man Who Didn't Like Animals by Deborah Underwood and LeUyen Pham 
Never Give a Baby a Library Card by Erin Sandberg and Tom Booth
Old Blue is My Home by Lita Judge
Pop! Goes the Nursery Rhyme by Betsy Bird and Andrea Tsurumi
Stalactite & Stalagmite: A Big Tale From a Little Cave by Drew Beckmeyer
The Wild Robot on the Island by Peter Brown
Zip Zap Wickety Wack: A Story About Sharing by Matthew Diffee

Book of the Week (2/23/2026)

Beatrix and the Unicorn by Lita Judge (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2026)

Inspired by the famous Unicorn Tapestries, acclaimed author-illustrator Lita Judge weaves together a beautiful picture book about a servant girl searching for a real unicorn—and with it, the promise of friendship.

Long ago and far away, a girl named Beatrix wakes each day to her chores in the castle. She serves the meals and scrubs the floors. And when no one is looking, she gazes at the tapestry of the unicorn in a garden. The unicorn is the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen, but it’s only made from thread. Beatrix knows if she could find the real unicorn, she would never feel lonely again, so late one evening, she gathers what she needs for a long journey and slips out into the night… --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Lita Judge is the award winning author and illustrator of 30 fiction and nonfiction books including The Wisdom of Trees. Her other picture books include Born in the Wild, Red Sled, Hoot and Peep, and One Thousand Tracings, winner of the International Reading Association Award and an ALA Notable Book. Her book, Flight School, was adapted into an off-Broadway musical and is currently running in New York and China. She lives in Peterborough, NH.

2026 Dublin Award Longlist announced!

The Dublin Literary Award 2026 longlist has been announced!

Twenty novels have been selected for the 2026 Dublin Literary Award longlist, including the NH State Library's selection, "The Antidote" by Karen Russell.

The shortlist will be announced on April 7, 2026 and the winning book on May 21, 2026.

Book of the Week (2/16/2026)

Silos, Secrets, and Silence: Forgiving My Family's Alcoholism by Mary Anne Totten (Independently published, 2025)

Totten chronicles her journey through a childhood shaped by alcoholism, family dysfunction, and emotional isolation, exploring the winding road of forgiveness she finds herself on as an older adult. The narrative spans decades, tackling her struggles with parental abandonment, her mother’s alcoholism, and the silos of silence that defined her family’s communication. Totten’s path to becoming a physician, her relationships, and her quest for self-acceptance and reconciliation form the backbone of this deeply personal story, as, through moments of trauma, resilience, and eventual healing, she reflects on the complexities of family dynamics and the lifelong impact of unresolved pain.

Themes of alcoholism, generational silence, and the search for identity resonate deeply, making the memoir relatable and poignant. Totten’s ability to confront painful truths while seeking understanding and closure is inspiring, and her emotional honesty reverberates throughout. From a young age, she acknowledges that her “need for acceptance overrode everything else”—an admission that echoes both a loss of innocence and an important step in her healing journey. This testament to resilience is ideal for readers interested in family dynamics, addiction recovery, and personal growth. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Mary Anne Totten, MD, is a retired physician who practiced primary care, endocrinology, and geriatrics in Boston, Massachusetts; Parkersburg, West Virginia; and Manchester, New Hampshire. After she retired from the practice of medicine in 2015, she was ordained as an interfaith spiritual minister by the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine (ChIME). She currently volunteers in the Spiritual Care Department in her retirement community in Concord, New Hampshire. She has traveled around the world twice, has lived in eight different states, and visited forty-six of the fifty US states.

Join Mary Anne at Gibson's Bookstore on Thu., March 5, 2026 at 6:30 pm where she will present her new memoir.