Teen book ‘Gossamer Green’ a flight of ecological fancy

THE GOSSAMER GREEN, by Jean G. Howard, Creative Arts Book Co., Berkeley, Calif., 190 pages, paperback, $14.95.

In Jean Howard’s new book for young adult readers, we are introduced to an imaginary species of birds, the gossamer green, inhabitants of Greengoss Isles, which lie far from the mainland. These immense green birds are not distance fliers, so they must live on their spruce-covered islands year round. And there’s the rub: Food sources are limited, and as we read at the beginning of this environmental parable, the flock faces eventual starvation if actions aren’t taken to control its population and harvesting habits.

How to resolve this dilemma? One group of birds suggests a lottery to choose which pairs will breed each year. While the majority of the flock accepts this arrangement, another group, led by the villainous First Claw, removes itself to Islet, the smaller of the Greengoss Isles. Eventually, these rebel gossamers are forced by circumstances to war with their neighbors.

The names of the birds have a distinctly Native American feel: Black Feather, Running River, Bright Berry, Thin Longlegs, Fresh Seawind. Some of these (excuse the pun) noms de plumes are quite humorous: Squirty Clamshell, Shorty Longbeak and Pinky Shellface are a few of my favorites. At times it’s difficult to distinguish one bird from another. Certain of the avian characters have distinct voices, such as Black Feather, leader of the greengoss band, but in a story in which there is a lot of dialogue, one bird tends to blend into another.

“Discussions were always a stimulant to the gossamers’ imagination — an imagination [long] on fancy,” we’re told toward the end of the book. The birds’ efforts to reach consensus on one or another plan of action are often prolonged by rather long-winded gatherings in the Clearing, a central meeting area. Howard is true to an often frustrating but necessary element of conflict resolution.

Along with harangues and philippics come a host of platitudes. “Thinking and doing are distant cousins who sometimes never meet,” says Quiet Feather. “Freedom is a glorious privilege,” declares Captain Root.

Howard has fun coming up with bird equivalents of human sayings: “It’s no cackling matter”; “one rotten clam stinks up the whole bed”; “at this unbirdly hour”; “for cawing out loud.”

“The Gossamer Green” is an ecological book. On several occasions the birds refer to the complex chain of nature and how easily it can be broken when one resource is overused. “Each tiny essence has its place in the scheme of things,” Black Feather tells his feathered brethren. (There’s a timely reference to organic agriculture when Quiet Feather, son of the chief bird, suggests using seaweed as mulch.) Another member of the flock voices a less pleasant theory of nature: “It seems that life goes its own restless way regardless of what’s wise. We live and die in a kind of mindless chaos.”

“The Gossamer Green” invokes comparisons to “Animal Farm” and other critiques of society and culture in which creatures stand in for mankind. The splinter group of birds, “The Brotherhood,” and their bloody methods of population control conjure up visions of Hitler. At the same time, there is something biblical about the story, and it’s not simply the recurring references to the Bird of Heaven and his nemesis, Hellbird. After the climactic battle, one of the birds flies “into the rising sun” and crows, “No more! No more! I pledge my life to Life” — a Christian image if there ever was one.

The setting of the story has distinct echoes of the Cranberry Isles where Howard has spent most of her summers for over 50 years. One recognizes certain landmarks, such as the Heath, and several place names recall those of island locales (Islet and Islesford, for example). The issue of limited resources evokes Cranberry Islanders’ longtime concern with the deer population, which has at times suffered from starvation.

The author knows the island world; her descriptions of swamp cabbage, chanterelles and other gossamer food sources are poetic. The very name gossamer conjures up an island phenomenon: the fine film of cobwebs often seen floating in the air or caught on bushes or grass.

Howard is a seasoned writer; among her other nature titles for younger readers is “Tuk, the Timid: The Story of a Sea Otter.” She and her husband, the poet and painter Charles Wadsworth, ran a small publishing house for many years, producing award-winning fine press books. This fable marks a welcome return to the field of children’s literature by a first-rate writer and dedicated Maine islander.

Carl Little writes for Art in America and numerous other publications and directs the Ethel H. Blum Gallery at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor.