Some of my favorite children's books stem from Maine authors... E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web", Robert McCloskey's, "One Morning in Maine" and "Burt Dow Deep Water Man", and Barbara Cooney's "Miss Rumphius". When I was thinking about what to include in my book, "Journey Around Maine from A to Z", I knew that I HAD to include a page about these and the many more authors that call Maine home. After some research and dilberation, I thought it would be fun to include an illustration of E.B. White's house so I set off to Brooklin Maine to snap some photos. I stopped at a local market and they pointed the way. They also told me that the family no longer owned the house. Hmmmm. That might be a problem, but I had to check it out anyway. When I spotted the house that fit the description, I did a quick u-turn, pulled over, thought I'd take a couple discreet photos, and then... my car fell into a ditch- two wheels in, two wheels out and me at a 45 degree angle! So much for discreet! A very friendly man soon stopped and organized a crew of about 1/2 the town to help me out. I was so grateful that I acknowledged this helpful fellow on the dedication page of my book... I hope he somehow gets my message of thanks! I was too flustered at the time to take the picture! I opted for using historic photos and my imagination to paint a picture of E.B. White's boathouse where he actually wrote, "Charlotte's Web".
To get a better view of Maine's books and authors, I highly reccommend the wonderful "Booktown" exhibit at the Maine Discovery Museum in Bangor. Kids can enter the "Good Night Moon" room, climb on Wilbur's back, and hop aboard Burt Dow's boat the Tidely- Idely. My kids loved it!
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