Winthrop author dreams up ancient feud

THE FIRST FEUD: BETWEEN THE MOUNTAIN AND THE SEA, A FABLE, by Lynn Plourde; pictures by Jim Sollers; Down East Books, Camden, Maine, 2003; $15.95, hardcover.

With the publication of “The First Feud: Between the Mountain and the Sea,” Lynn Plourde joins the ranks of Maine’s prolific children’s authors.

Plourde’s latest children’s book is the story of a beauty contest that happened “long ago, before people lived in the North Land,” between Mount Katahdin and the Atlantic Ocean. The two forces of nature send tokens of their beauty back and forth to each other, provoking greater and greater indignation until finally, “Enough is enough!” and they go to war to decide who is the most beautiful.

Thunderstorms and blizzards, wild waves and hurricanes lay waste to the land between the mountain and the sea. When the mayhem subsides, the enemies catch glimpses of each other at last, and realize to their astonishment that both claims of beauty were justified. In the end, their cooperation restores and enhances “the in-between lands,” and we come to understand that the North Land’s beauty arises from the meeting of mountain and sea.

“The First Feud,” by the author for whom “words are like toys,” indeed has a high lyrical tone driven by playful alliterations, and will make for pleasurable reading aloud at bedtime, or at book time in the classes of exuberant second-grade teachers, or on a drive where you see the mountains and sea for yourself. The illustrations by Jim Sollers of Rockland caught the eye of an experienced 12-year-old reader who said that not only does the book “sound ancient,” but the blocky, dynamic, green-and-blue-dominated pictures of storms and waves are striking.

Lynn Plourde, who grew up in Skowhegan, earned degrees in speech therapy from the University of Maine and now lives in Winthrop, has eight children’s books to her credit, including “The First Feud,” and a ninth, “Mother, May I?” on the way from Dutton Children’s Books this spring. With her husband, Paul Knowles, she also is author of “A Celebration of Maine Children’s Books” (University of Maine Press, 1998), and her 1999 book “Wild Child” has recently been published in paperback by Aladdin Books.

“Word player” Plourde frequently takes her instructive fun on the road to schools and other educational venues, and she will be reading and sign copies of her book from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, at Bookstacks in Bucksport. Call 469-8992, or toll-free (888) 295-0123), for more information.

Dana Wilde is a Bangor Daily News copy desk editor and English instructor at the University of Maine. He can be reached at dana.wilde@umit.maine.edu.