‘Stopping to Home’ richly written book Children’s novel set in Wiscasset, 1806

STOPPING TO HOME, by Lea Wait, Margaret K. McElderry Books, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2001, 152 pages, $16

Wiscasset author Lea Wait combines a world she knows well – children looking for love and safety – with the history of her adopted community in her first children’s novel, “Stopping to Home.” Published this fall, it is the story of 11-year-old Abbie Chambers and her 4-year-old brother, Seth, who must find a way to survive after their mother dies of smallpox.

Set in the seafaring community of Wiscasset in 1806, the story vividly recreates the town and the difficult life that faced children, especially poor and orphaned children, almost two centuries ago. Wait’s detailed descriptions of everyday life in the District of Maine, then still part of Massachusetts, is reminiscent of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” books.

An antique print dealer and former strategic planner in New York, Wait also is the mother of four adopted daughters, now grown. Perhaps that is what allowed her to so poignantly capture Abbie’s constant worry about the future and the young Seth’s desire to find a place he knows is home.

According to information posted on her Web site, the characters were born as Wait scoured Wiscasset’s historical records for information on her own home, built in 1744. One of her characters, Sally Clough Bowman, grew up in the house overlooking the Sheepscot River where Wait wrote “Stopping to Home.” Many of the incidents described in the book, including the rescue of a moose calf, actually occurred, according to the author.

Abbie and Seth’s story begins with the death of their mother in March 1806 while their father is away at sea. The town doctor takes them to live temporarily with a sea captain, ill with smallpox, and his young wife, only a few years older than Abbie. The children’s future together is uncertain as they wait to hear word of their father and are unable to locate other relatives.

Wait fills the book with in-depth information about life in the early 19th century without slowing down the story. The book is written from Abbie’s point of view, and is rich with dialogue which lends insight into the characters and moves the plot along at a swift pace. Yet, it is Wait’s descriptions of how Mainers lived without modern conveniences that are most fascinating.

“I pulled the ribbon on my new bonnet tighter and held my cloak close as I headed down Main Street,” Wait writes in Chapter 10 set in November. “My hands were sore. Seth and I had spent the past two days, Saturday and again Sunday after church, interweaving pine and spruce boughs around the base of the house as high as the windows and filling in the spaces with hay. Boughs surrounded most homes in Wiscasset at this time of year. Such work had been done by the Abenakis before the colonists and surely helped to keep winter winds from finding their way through pine clapboards …”

The book could have benefited from a glossary, however. Without visiting Wait’s Web site, it is impossible to conclude that what Abbie calls small cakes are cookies today or that cloughs are diapers. Her historical note at the end explains some things, but the rituals surrounding pregnancy, childbirth and the items newborns needed could be especially confusing to younger readers.

The conclusion of “Stopping to Home,” the equivalent of the modern expression staying at home, leaves the reader yearning for a sequel. According to information on her Web site, that is not in the immediate future. Wait will publish “Shadows at the Fair: An Antique Print Mystery” next summer and another children’s novel, “Seaward Born,” in early 2003. That book will feature runaway slave Noah Brown, a minor character in “Stopping to Home.”

If either is as well written as her first novel, Wait’s name will be added to the list of Maine writers who successfully mine their surroundings and bring to the surface rich material that is insightful, dramatic and a joy to read.