Summertime and the reading is easy Select books great choices for children

A small pile of children’s books had been sitting on our piano for a few weeks when my 16-year-old noticed the top book: “Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud,” by Lynn Plourde. “Hey, I remember that one – that was a lot of fun to read,” Daniel said. And while I can’t say he actually picked it up and read it, I did. And yes, it is fun to read. Published by Scholastic in 1997, this had been Plourde’s first book. She has gone on to write some classic books. Whether they are zany like “Teacher Appreciation Day,” or thoughtful, like “Winter Waits,” Plourde always uses language in unusual ways – though maybe not surprising for a speech and language therapist. Somewhat predictably, Plourde lives in a rural Maine town where road rhymes with the stuff the road becomes in spring: Mud.

“Pigs in the Mud” had since gone out of print, but fortunately, Down East Books has brought it back for $15.95, so a new generation of children can giggle over the language inventions, where pigs in the “rud” are joined by hens, sheep, bulls – and the bulls don’t even charge, “Not a tiny little smarge.” Nor do the sheep shuffle, “Not a tiny little schmuffle.” Not until Grandma gets out of her Model T Ford and says the three little words that make any creature, from hen to bull, from age 6 to 16, get up and “smudge, smatter, shmuffle,” and “smarge.”

An even deeper classic in my pile of summer children’s books comes from Rachel Field, who spent summers in the Cranberry Isles and later owned a house on Sutton Island. Her “Grace for an Island Meal” was written in 1924 when she was 30 years old. This year, it has been issued as a children’s book by Farrar Straus & Giroux of New York, with brightly colored illustrations by Cynthia Jabar ($16). Told with the quiet rhythms of a prayer, the book is not only delightful to look at and read, but it holds a powerful message of simple self-sufficiency, of food gathered and grown from the land:

“Bless the Island-pastured cow

for her milk which now we pour.

Bless these berries from the shore.

Bless every fresh-laid egg and then

blessings on each island hen.”

Amen.

Another island book comes from Patricia MacLachlan, who wrote the young adult novel, “Sarah Plain and Tall.” She joins with her daughter Emily MacLachlan to offer “Painting the Wind.”

“I paint all winter long. And I wait,” begins this lovely book of a young boy who lives year-round on an island much like Monhegan. All is quiet on this island until summer, when the place burgeons with artists who come to paint. “I paint the places where the water meets the land. I paint the deep ponds. I paint the clouds. But I cannot paint the wind,” the young artist continues. The boy looks forward to summer, when he visits with each island painter: the one who paints faces, the one who paints flowers and the one who paints still lifes. After going out with the one who paints landscapes, the boy finds that he has, in fact, painted the wind. The illustrations by Katy Schneider are sensitive, lovely, and yes, quite painterly. $8.99 paper, Harper Trophy Books.

The loneliness of the little boy waiting for summer is echoed by another reprint, Ethel Pochocki’s “The Mushroom Man,” with thoughtful, penetrating illustration by Barry Moser. Originally published in 1993, it has been reprinted in paperback by Tilbury House in 2006 for $7.95. The mushroom man is a cheerful guy who works on a mushroom farm, loves peanut butter and fluff sandwiches and looks a bit like a mushroom himself – which means he’s teased for his looks. Friendless, he feels a “little ache now and then, sometimes dull, as in old bones on a rainy day, sometimes sharp as a wasp sting.” But there is a friend for everyone, says Pochocki, and so the mushroom man finds a mole, who like him, knows darkness, and thinks mushrooms are the best – “right up there with worms and grubs!”

Loneliness is just one issue that children contend with. Fears are another. Amber Stewart and Maine coast artist Laura Rankin tackle this with a sweet tale of growing up in “Rabbit Ears,” published in 2006 by Bloomsbury Children’s books of New York for $16.95. Hopscotch is a little rabbit who knows what he likes, such as chocolate cake with a side of icing and his little rabbit, Rabbity – and what he doesn’t like. Tops on that list is washing his ears. That is, until his big cousin comes to visit and makes a game of the former horror.

Other new books with Maine connections include “Grandma Drove the Garbage Truck,” written by Katie Clark, illustrated by Amy Huntington, Ill., (Camden: Down East Books. $15.99), a tall tale of trash terrors and Fourth of July parade pride as Grandma’s driving leads her to win the day. It’s

pretty silly, but what kid isn’t?

Also on the silly side is “Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku,” by Paul B. Janeczko and J. Patrick Lewis illustrated by Tricia Tusa, NY: Little Brown & Co. $15.99, a book of puns in the shape of haikus, combined with zany drawings that are a bit of a cross between Dr. Seuss and Helen Oxenbury:

“High school band minus

its tuba player – looking

for a substi-toot!”

Finally, followers of the tree-climbing bears in Calais might cherish “Wake Up, Bertha Bear!” by Chad Mason and Chad Wallace (Camden: Down East Books, $15.95), in which a baby bear wakes up early, goes out exploring, wakes up on a fir tree and doesn’t know what to do. Fortunately, the animals of the forest are alerted and kind. Each one has a skill that can help baby bear – even, the animals find, Stanley Skunk. This is the kind of book that makes a kid feel good.

Donna Gold is a freelance writer and oral historian living in Stockton Springs. She helps families and communities record their stories through Personal History, www.personalhistory.org.