Books bring out children’s creativity> 3 works highlight Maine authors, illustrators

FOUR LITTLE BLOBS, by Helen Earle Simcox, Windswept House Publishers, Mt. Desert, 1998, 30 pages, paperback, $8.

ALEX & ZIG, written by Barbara Murray Klopp, illustrated by Gail Apgar Faulkner, Hallowell Printing Co., 1997, 48 pages, paperback, $10.95.

DICKY DUCK AND HIS FRIENDS, written by Dorothy Hardy-Santi, illustrated by Laura Santi, published by School House Museum, Lincolnville Center, 38 pages, paperback, $8.75.

Amber, 8, discovered the book and insisted on sharing it with Katie, 5. Their reading inspired an art project. Adam, 23 months, toddled over to admire their work and demanded, “Read me da book, NOW.”

“Four Little Blobs,” by Helene Earle Simcox, is “dedicated to the artist in each of us.” It can bring out the creativity in children and parents. Four blobs are feeling sorry for themselves because they aren’t more conventionally shaped. Children and an artist see their potential. They are transformed into a leaf on a branch, a swimming fish, a flying bird and a flower in a beautiful garden. In my children’s favorite illustration all are joined together in a landscape picture. Then readers are left with four new blobs and encouraged to create their own pictures.

Next time you visit a bookstore look beyond the flashy movie-based volumes and the series that multiply almost like rabbits and you’ll find a wealth of wholesome, captivating children’s books by Maine authors and illustrators. Talk about a win-win situation! In addition to finding treasures to share with your family you’ll be supporting our state’s wonderful literary talent and often its small publishing houses that take chances on the gems of manuscripts the New York publishers might overlook.

Do your children greet your announcement that it’s bedtime with anything but enthusiasm? Then they’ll enjoy Barbara Murray Klopp’s “Alex & Zig.” All summer Alex has played outside until dark. But school has started and his parents have become grouchy about bedtime. It hardly seems fair. They can stay up as late as they want. One night he tries all his best stalling techniques: sneaking out of the house, talking his mother into giving him a last push on his swing, brushing his teeth very slowly. Just before dawn he is awakened by a tapping on his window. A stranger leads him on an exciting adventure.

“Alex & Zig” is meant to be read aloud. It has the cadence of spoken language. Who would fail to add expression to Alex’s “Good thing my parents are asleep. If they looked up and saw me here, I’d be in really big trouble”? Stocky, pink-cheeked Alex is an appealing, believable protagonist. And his fans can look forward to three more of his adventures.

Do you have a beginning reader in your family? Do you want to fuel her enthusiasm with interesting, easy-to-read books? “Dicky Duck and his Friends” is a marvelous parent-child read together. The lively, humorous story and charming illustrations will foster not only word-decoding, but plot comprehension and motivation.

Dot and her brothers, Swiss and Charlie, live on a farm with some delightfully eccentric animals. A goat named Lady loves jumping beds. Peep-Peep the chicken insists on laying eggs in car seats. The ducks sometimes get frozen into a little brook and have to be chopped out.

When a mother duck rejects four late-hatching ducklings the children end up raising them. They succeed so well that one duckling, Dicky Duck, takes on an almost human identity — favoring sandwiches, bananas and watermelon over grain and corn and insisting on riding in the family car — until a lady duck appears on the scene and nature and nurture come into conflict.

The real Dot (Dorothy Hardy Smith), Charlie and Swiss grew up on a family farm in Lincolnville during the Depression. Dot entertained her own five children with stories from her childhood. One day when daughter Jan, sick with chickenpox, asked to hear about Dicky Duck again Dot wrote the story down. Later, Jan’s sister, Laura, created the illustrations.

The Hathaway beat-the-winter-doldrums advice for February: Read some good Maine books. Many book stores have a special section of Maine children’s literature. Your library might subscribe to Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance’s “Maine in Print.” Each issue gives information on a wide variety of hot-off-the-press Maine books for the young and not so young. And if you find a real keeper — juvenile or adult — let me know.