Wherein an optimistic slip of a girl brings sunshine into the lives of her Royal Parents, the whiny King and the scolding Queen, and out smarts the despicable Count Carlos Maximillian von Dusseldorf (with two s’s) and his Magical Minion, the mischievous, poetical Georgette…and what is a hoop snake anyway? Written by Charles F. D. [...]
Written by D. M. Cataneo “If you had the imagination to step out of genre and sell a book that could be read as a tween then reread as an adult, each time with a fresh take. That’s the kind of book I set out to write – something, if I may be presumptuous, like [...]
The truth is – we gardeners believe in the magic of seeds, which are really tangible metaphors for life. Some will grow and thrive, others will not. But all have the potential to make a good day better. And we are needed to help them along their journey.
A kindly, heartfelt story, Hippo and Monkey can also be used to teach young people not to yell directly at their friends and loved ones. Highly recommended.
One up for the son; dad’s reminded of his own standards, and one mouse gets to live! Vermont story-teller Willem Lange and Vermont artist Bert Dodson have teamed up to create this special parable and to make you feel as if you are right there with father and son… and their mouse.
Available October 2013 – 13-year-old Jen and her younger brother Ed are desperate to save the house in which their grandmother brought them up. But the only way to do that is prove that their grandmother’s one remaining treasure, a strange and beautiful tapestry, was made by more than a century ago by William Morris the sage of the Arts and Crafts Movement: The man appropriately called Tops could never stop designing, making, planning, and telling everyone what was beautiful. Making this and making that, tapestries, wallpaper, silver ornaments, stained glass, and even BOOKS!
I even accepted (against my better judgment) a Crown of Thorns plant (Euphorbia Milii) from my friend and fellow writer, Willem Lange. It was, I believe, a plant from his grandmother – and Will is older than I am. So it might be a 100-year old house plant.
I can’t say that I always knew or even suspected that Glenn Wolff and I would team up on another Christmas book one day, but I’m elated that we have, more than 15 years further on. Doing Flight of the Reindeer: The True Story of Santa Claus and His Christmas Mission with him and the designer J Porter in 1996 was an entirely thrilling experience for me: excitement from beginning to end.
May the New Year bring you many wonderful memories, for they are what make life special. Best Wishes from Carole, Ib and all of us at Bunker Hill Publishing. Illustration from Bunker Hill Publishing’s forthcoming ‘A Child’s Christmas in New England: Memories of Seasons Past’ written by Robert Sullivan and illustrated by Glenn Wolff, creators of ‘Flight of the Reindeer: The True Story of Santa Claus and His Christmas Mission’.
Written for children that have an interest in traditional outdoor sports, the 32-page hardcover book follows the path of an 8-year-old youngster and his father as they hike, canoe and hunt together, while dad teaches the boy the ethics of safety and conservation along the way.
Voices in the Hills, Collected Ramblings from a Rural Life, by Ryegate Corner resident Nessa Flax, occupied my time in the woods during the week. Her short essays about her experiences as an urban girl from away learning to live in rural Vermont were chosen from columns she once wrote for the Journal Opinion.
We had a little snow recently, so it’s starting to feel like winter. I relish winters for many reasons – cross country skiing, Nordic skating and snowshoeing prime among them. But I also love winter because it gives me a chance to slow down a little and sit near the woodstove with a good book.
Sheila Cunningham, visited Franciscan Hospital for Children to read her popular children’s book, Willow’s Walkabout: A Children’s Guide to Boston. Each child received a signed copy of the book, a wallaby-shaped cookie and a hug from Willow!
Who knew that a little boy with a premature mustache could melt your heart? (His ability to talk to animals and indomitable
spirit don’t hurt, either.) A fantasy tale or a coming-of-age journey that reads like historical fiction, colored at every turn by the humanity of its author’s Peace Corps volunteer days
The small bits of wonder seek to inspire introspection and thought, and make “Under the Wild Ginger” insightful and well worth considering for those seeking bite sized wisdom to ponder as they go through life.
For 50 years, an old professor at the college Willem Lange attended performed an annual reading of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Lange determined that he wanted to continue the tradition, and for 37 years, he has been doing his own dramatic reading of the classic at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hanover.
“My favorite character was Roxie. Wobar couldn’t have lived without Roxie and Roxie couldn’t have lived without Wobar. It’s not only an adventure for Wobar and Roxie but it’s an adventure for the reader too.”
And though Wobar and Roxie find themselves in many scary, sometimes life-threatening situations in Wobar and the Quest for the Magic Calumet, the novel remains a hopeful story, perhaps an extension of Homeyer’s own optimistic worldview.
Hippo Press by Jeff Mucciarone Wobar children’s book 46 years in the making Hippo readers know Henry Homeyer as the Gardening Guy. Homeyer, who lives in Cornish Flats, writes a weekly gardening column and has published three gardening books. A few weeks ago, Homeyer published his first children’s book, Wobar and the Quest for the [...]
“The White-Footed Mouse” is a beautifully illustrated story about a little mouse found by a boy at a hunting camp cabin with high in the New Hampshire mountains. The boy is carefully taught how to hunt with his 22 rifle, including instructions to only aim the rifle at animals he intended to kill, and that [...]
This is a charming 32-page picture book boys will delight in. Time with a father is precious, but many times lessons about nature and life are learned by both parent and child.
There are many lessons in this 48-page picture book, above all: True friendship can survive anything with acceptance and understanding.
By DOMENIC POLI / Reformer Staff SAXTONS RIVER — Henry Homeyer has grown accustomed to seeing his name in print. An avid gardener, he has published four books and writes a regular column in regional newspapers, including the Reformer. But he’s used to detailing spades, soils and seeds — not a boy born with facial [...]
The Commons Online SAXTONS RIVER—Henry Homeyer will read from his children’s book Wobar and the Quest for the Magic Calumet at Main Street Arts Saturday, Nov. 10, at 4 p.m. Accompanying him for the reading and signing will be the book’s illustrator, Josh Yunger. Best known for his weekly gardening column, Homeyer is a writer, [...]
While a few of these stanzas will resonate with most people and be familiar (and some will be a pleasant surprise, and leave you asking yourself why did I not think of that – “Compare the two sides of someone’s face”), they all have a purpose. They serve as a gentle reminder and offer a bit of clarity through the fog that is life, such as “Don’t think too much” and cause us to stop and look at something in a different light, such as “Listen for the laugher of water”.
Reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly (Willem Lange, illus. by Bert Dodson. Bunker Hill (NBN, dist.), $17.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-59373-109-0) “I had the greatest dad that any kid has ever had,” opens this homespun and nostalgic story from the creators of Favor Johnson. The narrator’s recollections of his outdoor enthusiast father teaching him to bird watch and [...]
By Mass. Lawyers Weekly Staff in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly When an Australian wallaby escaped from the Stone Zoo in 1990, the news made headlines across the state. Among those who followed the story was Sheila S. Cunningham, though it turns out hers was more than a passing interest in the wayward marsupial. Off and on [...]
The White-Footed Mouse began in hunting camp many years ago on an icy Friday night. A little mouse, attracted by the warmth of the clay pipe that carried our stovepipe through the wall, came and perched on it. He clearly didn’t care what we might do to him; he was warm! Just before bedtime I [...]
Reviewed by Debbie Roberts on Garden of Possibilites Organic Gardening (Not Just) in the Northeast: A Hands-on Month-by-Month Guide by Henry Homeyer is one of those no-frills, no-photos-just-a-few-illustrations, chock-full-of-useful-info books that you’ll refer to again and again. Homeyer, aka The Gardening Guy, an organic gardener for four decades as well as a syndicated garden writer and radio [...]
Cunningham based her children’s tale on Aardu, a wallaby that escaped from the Stone Zoo in 1990 and went for an 11-day romp around the Middlesex Fells Reservation. The book takes readers on a tour of Boston through the eyes of a curious wallaby.
North Country voices By Deb Baker/Monitor ColumnistConcord Monitor For a celebration of contemporary human ingenuity as manifested in loggers, farmers, librarians, town-meeting leaders and other inhabitants of the North Country, read Nessa Flax’s collection Voices In the Hills: Collected Ramblings from a Rural Life. Flax has written the Rambling Reflections column for the Bradford, Vt., [...]
The Herald of Randolph Book Review by Martha Slater I’m always pleased to find another Vermont writer whose work I enjoy and “Voices in the Hills: Collected Ramblings from a Rural Life,” by Nessa Flax is a delight from start to finish. A compilation of her newspaper columns, Flax’s brand new first book has garnered [...]
From The Dartmouth by James Peng, The Dartmouth Staff Sharing the common bond of graduating as some of the first women to attend Dartmouth, psychotherapist Martha Hennessey ’76, author Nessa Flax ’76 and minister Ann Beams ’77 discussed qualities of leadership in front of approximately 80 women in Collis Common Ground on Tuesday night. The [...]
Voices in the Hills, by Nessa Flax. Published by Bunker Hill Publishing, Inc., Piermont, New Hampshire. 301 pages. $22.50. Reviewed by Tena Starr Nessa Flax is a relative newcomer to Vermont, as she regularly points out in this book. She’s lived in the Caledonia County town of Ryegate Corner for ten years and has spent [...]
By Naomi Kooker Have you heard about Willow the wallaby that escapes from Stone Zoo in Stoneham only to end up having a field day (and night) in Boston? Willow’s Walkabout: A Children’s Guide to Boston by Sheila S. Cunningham (Bunker Hill Publishing, 2012) is based on a true story about a wallaby that actually [...]
For younger children, check out Sheila Cunningham’s new picture book, Willow’s Walkabout, in which an Australian kangaroo escapes from the zoo in order to see the Boston sites she’s heard all the zoo visitors talking about.
An article by Amy Julia Becker in the Huffington Post “Finding The Words To Talk About Disability” (5/30/12) reminded me that important questions regarding disabilities often get ignored by the news media for long periods and how arbitrarily they are treated when they do surface for a brief interlude in the daily news cycle. Why there [...]
by Amy Lilly in Seven Days Vermont’s Independent Voice Bradford, Vt.’s small, independent newspaper, the Journal Opinion, has been published weekly since the end of the Civil War. One reason for its longevity may be that it brings news to readers in the Connecticut River area that’s relevant to their lives. One recent front page [...]
Floy Morway March 3, 1918 – June 8, 2012 By this fall BHP will have published 60 books, not bad for our first 10 years. Each project is very special to me in its own way but one that really stands out for me is Floy’s book, The Cat Lady of Concord: Feline Tales and [...]
Why is it that some people use nicknames for their children that are the names of vegetables or flowers? I’m sure you are familiar with “sweet pea” as a loving epithet (even for kids who are not sweet), or “pumpkin” for children who are neither round nor orange. The French, I am told, call their [...]
Taken from Book Conscious by Deb Baker on June 2, 2012 … For a celebration of contemporary human ingenuity as manifested in loggers, farmers, librarians, town-meeting leaders, and other inhabitants of the North Country, read Nessa Flax’s collection Voices In the Hills: Collected Ramblings from a Rural Life. Flax has written “Rambling Reflections,” a weekly [...]
We at BHP would like to offer congratulations to Willem Lange. On April 30, 2012 Willem was nominated for a Boston/New England Emmy Awards for outstanding program host for his work on WINDOWS TO THE WILD. On June 2, 2012 Saving Songbirds won the Outstanding Environmental Program Emmy for Boston/New England. For a complete list of [...]
You may recall some years back the incident at the Stone Zoo about a young Wallaby named Aardu flying the coup. Aardu escaped the zoo and spent two weeks floating around the Boston area before being safely brought back to her home at 149 Pond St.
As I am sure you know, once upon a time there were three little pigs. One built his house of bricks, one of sticks, and the lazy one built a house of straw. I forget the details, but I think the lazy one got eaten by the wolf – a moral for all kids and gardeners. Work hard, survive. But one exception to that rule is the asparagus patch. Each year you can have delicious food relatively work-free.
Out of Fire and Valor by Cal Snyder was mentioned in the New York Times Blog on May 29, 2012. Clyde Haberman reporting on Memorial Day uses this quote “…“There’s usually a lag of 10 or 12 years,” said Cal Snyder, who wrote a book on such tributes, “Out of Fire and Valor: The War [...]
Ellen Sousa is a master of photography and she knows how to incorporate just the right picture with just the right description of eco-friendly habitat gardening. I could easily write a book of gardening short stories to coincide with each of her pictures as they are so very powerful. They run like ocean currents with the adjoining flora and leave the reader this a list of “must dos” for their own garden development.
An enchanted life has many moments when the heart is overwhelmed by beauty and the imagination is electrified by some haunting quality in the world or by a spirit or voice speaking from deep within a thing, a place, or a person. From The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life by Thomas Moore I recently returned to [...]
I think I have grown, at one time or another, every kind of vegetable one can grow in New England, from artichokes to zucchini. Some, like carrots and beets, are worthy of a spot every year. Others, like fall radishes and spinach, get missed some years. One of the most interesting, but least productive, is the artichoke.
The tale takes the reader on a journey through the Hub – from the Children’s Museum to the Freedom Trail and on a ride on some “wicked cool’’ Swan Boats. Years ago, Zoo New England caught the errant Aardu by setting traps filled with hay soaked in the urine of the female wallabies.
This is a busy time for all of us in the garden. Not only are weeds up, some of them are already blooming. I try real hard to keep weeds from spreading their seeds in my garden beds, so I am doing my best to pull them now before they bloom and make seeds. And there is so much else to do I’m not sure if I have time to write this column!
it’s important to me to eat locally and seasonally. Now, as fresh veggies are growing in my garden and in my woods, I am relishing the treats they provide me. I am gathering ramps and fiddleheads from my woods. I am picking rhubarb, sorrel, chives and Good King Henry from my garden.
On April 28th my husband and I got a chance to really enjoy being publishers and it was fun. The Journal Opinion and Bunker Hill Publishing held a book launch at the Happy Hour in Wells River, VT for Nessa Flax’s new book, Voices in the Hills: Collected Ramblings from a Rural Life. There was a good turnout of folks from all walks of Nessa’s very interesting life, clearly there to congratulate her and celebrate the occasion.
Voices in the Hills: Collected Ramblings from a Rural Lifeby Nessa Flax Book Review by Charles SuttonVermont Country Sampler, May 2012 It’s an unhappy experience to have one’s well go dry or to be down to a few scant inches of water. This is not an unfamiliar scenario for families living in rural areas, and [...]
CBS News writing about the Cherry Blossom Festival. In attached short video they have an interview with Ann McClellan author of two Cherry Blossom Festival books with BHP.
Voices in the Hills author Nessa Flax reviewed by Anna Super in the Journal Opinion. “I had just returned from the wilds of Manhattan, where lights twinkle near and in the distance. I was momentarily bewildered. I knew there was no city back in the trees. Then my country self kicked in, and I remembered. “Fireflies” by Nessa Flax, from Voices in the Hills.
I love spring. Winter is relatively austere time in the garden so I relish the bounty of spring all the more. Over the years I have tried growing most flowers that will provide color in March, April and May. Below are some of my favorites.
When perusing these pages, readers can’t help but recall the words of Midwest landscape architect/gardeners Ossian Cole Simonds (1855–1931) and Jens Jensen (1860–1951) who introduced and advocated the use of native plants in the landscape. Ellen Sousa has furthered their thoughts in this manual on the importance of creating and maintaining grounds that support nature.
April has been a busy month for most gardeners because it has been warm and sunny. Our flower gardens and trees have woken up early, allowing us to do tasks we might, in other years, put off until May. Here are some jobs I‘ve been working on – and you should be, too.
Imagine this: you walk into your house and everywhere you turn there are vases full of gorgeous, colorful flowers. Light green zinnias on the kitchen counter, pink and white cosmos on the hall table, blue bachelor buttons in a crystal vase on the dining room table. In fact, imagine every flat surface in the house with a vase filled with flowers. You can do that.
Henry approaches growing and caring for both ornamental plants and food plants with totally organic methods. It’s one of the things that I find so useful about the book.
Especially fun for Washington locals is this lushly illustrated story about a butterfly’s travels through the National Gallery of Art. No ordinary insect, Belle was accidentally dislodged from a 17th-century painting in the museum’s collection. As she journeys, she touches on 300 years of art and acquaints kids with the young subjects of such paintings as Vermeer’s Girl with the Red Hat, Goya’s Maria Teresa, complete with her fuzzy pet,
The ‘romantic notion of a book…
With the advent of eReaders and eBooks, the ultimate demise of traditional books has been predicted by geeks and publishing honchos. Lower cost for consumers and producers is a major factor. Storage is touted as another benefit. Libraries and readers can have thousands of “books” at the touch of a finger. Housing and dusting not required.I hope they’re wrong.
If you live in New England, I’d suggest buying The Green Garden by Ellen Sousa. The official title of Ellen’s book tells the reader exactly what’s inside…The Green Garden: A New England Guide to Planning, Planting and Maintaining the Eco-Friendly Habitat Garden.
Stop Sopa
The design of the book is simple yet appealing, with a pleasing mix of well-placed photographs, 13 reproductions of Tanner’s artwork, and a sprinkling of Ringgold’s illustrations, all against lightly colored pages.
Best Wishes for a Happy and Prosperous New Year !! from Carole, Ib and the entire Bunker Hill Publishing staff (L to R – Top Row- Izzy (Accounting), Avery (Sales) and Stella (Copyediting) Middle Row – Ella (Production) Addie (Design), Rylie (Marketing) and Sophie (Editorial) Bottom Row – Brinley (Strategic Planning)
Review of The Green Garden by Ellen Sousa. Reviewed by Maureen Horn, Mass Hort Librarian. What makes a ‘green’ garden? Aren’t all gardens ‘green’ by definition? Ellen Sousa has some strongly held and eloquently stated views that an ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘beneficial’ habitat is essential to our long-term environmental well being. She has written a book that is specific to New England that tells how to create such a garden.
Beautifully conceived and executed, this original and engaging book includes Belle’s journal, which provides details on each painting the duo encounters.
The back of the book features many of the plants ideally suited to the New England area. A colorful key is included that lets the reader know not only if the plant is good in shade or sunlight but also if that plant will attract birds or pollinators or if they are fragrant – heck, there are 31 symbols in the key! Very handy!
Publishing is now afflicted with a variety of systems entirely inimical to books and the welfare of readers. Rick Santelli may have started the Tea Party with a viral rant though you might be forgiven for expecting much less of this one. It won’t be televised and won’t alter the political landscape but, for what it’s worth though here is one for the road!
Of all the books on the market, it presents one of the most comprehensive and holistic views of the subject – starting at the conceptual level by making the case for why habitat gardening is so important – and then moving quickly to the pragmatic realities of how to succeed at this goal.
#OccupyDartmouth is perhaps the true Vox Clamantis in Deserto to which we should all listen. #OccupyDartmouth is about to go into its seventh week and everything about it has an air of genteel, if deliberately dilapidated, civility. The signs on the grass are polite and their Tweets are sparse and give no account of their daily experience or routine.
It all begins with a 17th-century Dutch still life (Jan Davidsz de Heem’s A Vase of Flowers, for those of you with particularly curious minds) at the National Gallery of Art. When an employee accidentally jostles the painting, two small butterflies are dislodged from the canvas ~ beautiful Belle and her friend Brimstone. There begins a journey to find their way home, navigating the expansive marble halls of the museum and overcoming adversity in the guise of a very hungry bird. Along the way, Belle gives us a butterfly’s view of some of the Gallery’s most famous artworks.
Not only are we falling prey to these idiot devices, an apt (no pun intended) description I came across in an article last week, but we are subjecting our kids to them as well.
If writing becomes nothing but a vehicle for making money and publishing is found wanting in its ability to make that money then publishing becomes a circular firing squad and the community dies. If on the other hand judgment is exercised at all levels and content and meaning come before market and money then we will live in a richer world once again.
Independent thinking, independent understanding, original thought, and personal new horizons paradoxically may well be receding like a final outgoing tide maybe never to return. Or have we reached the tipping point here and further critical thought will encourage a serious backlash against what in the end will have been a colossal distraction? Time to reboot?
The call of #occupyWallStreet is infectious and irresistible, as has been, and is, the message of the #ArabSpring, the #indignados, the #acampados, the #tentcities
Sousa shows low-cost, beautiful and earth-friendly ways to “green” those landscapes and outdoor spaces and supply an adequate habitat for a whole variety of declining species, including birds, native pollinators, honey bees, amphibians and turtles.
The book includes an extensive Plant Guide, detailing wildlife-friendly plants suitable for varied conditions and microclimates found in New England, along with cultivation hints and tips, and the species attracted by each plant.
It is unfortunate that art is often considered okay for kids to spend time on but as we age we are supposed to pursue more serious occupations.
I really had been missing that good feeling one gets when one reaches out, giving and caring about those less fortunate. The basic message of this book was just that, a little boy buys a coat for a classmate who needs one in order to be able to play outside at recess.
My desk is a Mnemonic Device in and of itself. But that is lost on those whose idea of a desk is a platform for a computer. Ok, so only I can use it as others merely see this
I was half way through one of two recent Atlantic Monthly articles by the interesting Jonathan Knee when I realized I wasn’t getting the message. Jeff Jarvis’ blog piece on BuzzMachine had led me there.
Life is a puzzlement and like the King, I could sing (if I had the looks and voice of Yul Brynner!) There are times I almost think/I am not sure of what I absolutely know.
Review of Organic Gardening (Not Just) in the Northeast by author Henry Homeyer from Vermont Country Sampler
Fixit time, like the rain doesn’t seem to go away. Ellen Sousa’s magnum opus The Green Garden is about to go to the printer but we are waiting on William Cullina for his promised introduction and, talking of the Fixit of all Fixits he is busy fixing the last trimmings for a new garden at the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden.
Spring and autumn, Spring List and Fall List, Publishers have two seasons not four. Summer and winter are, in a way, seasonal interludes between the other two. Yes books are published every month but the vast majority fall into these two periods.
Follow your dream. If you don’t, there are consequences, “especially if they’re dictated by the gods,” said author Willem Lange. Lange will read from his new work, A Dream of Dragons, illustrated by Vermont artist and Caldecott medalist Mary Azarian on Thursday, June 9 at Everyone’s Books on Elliot Street.
Brief digital discomfiture with designers and editors under pressure can make one nostalgic for the days of Wraps and Inserts, for those salad days when paste-ups were cumbersome piles of paper hiding that long extinct being The Paste-up Artist
Moving parts is one thing but bricks and mortar are another. Two bookshops are closing in Harvard Square including the once amazing Curious George Store. If it wasn’t true before there must be as many bookshops in Brattleboro, Vermont as in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Green Garden and its cover: Grace won over Green. It is going to be a classic look. I liked the original but perhaps more for the conceit than the result so all’s well, author’s happy, one less moving part to worry about.
Publishing has a thousand moving parts and far more than the day moveable type was invented (1040 AD by Bi Sheng in China) which makes it difficult at times to keep one’s eye on the Big Picture.
Never mind the best-seller lists or Oprahs Book Club. The story that Willem Lange tells in his new book, A Dream of Dragons, helped him win the heart of his wife, Ida, five decades ago when he gave her the tale to read.
Ib Bellew has been asked to speak at The New England Publishing Conference on March 25 – 26, 2011 hosted by IPNE. Ib will be talking about “On the Cutting Edge: Trends in Book Publishing”. Here is a bit from his planned talk. “We are all publishers now. What to do? The Gatekeepers have fled [...]
We are excited and proud to present the three titles we have coming out this spring, for all three of them are exemplary books that well illustrate our goal of publishing high-quality, deeply engaging material.
My mother was a lover of poetry and gave me several collections of chestnuts – one of which, “Best-Loved Poems of the American People,” I cherish today, though it’s disintegrating – full of variously amusing, provocative, and inspiring poems.
Call me old-fashioned, but we at Bunker Hill Publishing are what used to be known as a “trade publisher,” a term hardly used today but current a decade or so ago.
If those folks can be convinced that a few small sacrifices are worth the benefits of having wolves return to the ecosystems they once thrived within, then the battle will be mostly won.
Reading has become a personal affair, a private communion with the between consumer and book. So used are we to this that we no longer think of the book as a technology, much less an engine for the voice.
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