Maine Humanities Council - What We're Reading

Harry the Dirty Dog, Gene Zion, illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham

I was a great fan of the Harry books when I was a child, and so it is with much pleasure that I watch my own son practice his emerging vocabulary with the adventures of Harry in this charming story of a dog who doesn’t like baths. When he hears water running in the tub, Harry buries his scrubbing brush and escapes his yard for a tour of his town, playing in construction sites, at a railway, and in coal. Tired and hungry, he returns home, only to find that his family doesn’t recognize him (he has changed, you see, from a black-spotted white dog to a white-spotted black dog). None of his customary tricks convince them that he is the real Harry. A final and unexpected trick involving the scrubbing brush finally convinces them. It is a wonderful book to use to discuss emotions and community with a child, and it is used in the New Books, New Readers “Real Life” series. (Diane Magras)

About the Author & Illustrator: Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham (who has twice won the Caldecott Honor award collaborated on many books, their first, All Falling Down, winning Graham’s first Caldecott in 1951. Others include Harry by the Sea, No Roses for Harry, and Harry and the Lady Next Door. Margaret Bloy Graham also wrote and illustrated her own books, including Be Nice to Spiders.

Spuds, Karen Hesse, illustrated by Wendy Watson

Spuds does not have a specific setting, but it’s clear from page one that times are tough. The narrator, Jack, explains that his mother is working the night shift to feed him and his siblings. Since they live in potato country (though their dialect makes it clear we’re not in Aroostook County, Maine), the children decide that no one will mind if they sneak out at night to gather what the harvester has left behind. But they are wrong-their mother minds! Illustrations by Wendy Watson use a soft, earthy palette to evoke the rural setting (without the words, we could be in Aroostook County). Despite the old-fashioned pictures, the values espoused in the story (integrity, generosity, frugality) could be especially relevant today. (Brita Zitin)

About the Author & Illustrator: Karen Hesse won the Newbery Medal in 1998 for her novel Out of the Dust, the coming-of-age story about a girl growing up in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Wendy Watson has illustrated many award-winning books and in addition had work featured in “Myth, Magic, and Mystery: One Hundred Years of American Children’s Book Illustration,” at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee; and the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, in 1996 and 1997.

The Forger’s Spell: The True Story of Vermeer, Nazis and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century, Edward Dolnick

Dolnick has done a masterful job telling this real-life thriller. Early in his career, Dutch painter Han van Meegeren felt that he wasn’t receiving the recognition he deserved. Turning to forgery, he created several new paintings purportedly by masters such as Vermeer and De Hooch, and through the use of middlemen, managed to convince many experts of their authenticity. Among others, Hermann Goering, infamous Nazi leader, and Dirk Hannema, director of Rotterdam’s prestigious Boymans Museum, spent millions purchasing these ’masterpieces’. Van Meegeren’s skill did not lie in his artistic abilities, however; he was a genius at psychological manipulation and had an incredible sense of timing. Dolnick’s telling of this tale is wonderful; through his expert use of suspense, science and storytelling techniques, he weaves a narrative that is so gripping and astonishing it couldn’t be imagined. To see some of Van Meegeren’s forgeries, go to www.essentialvermeer.com/misc/van_meegeren.html. (Martina Duncan)

About the Author: Edward Dolnick, once a science writer at the Boston Globe, is author of such books as Madness on the Couch: Blaming the Victim in the Heyday of Psychoanalysis and The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece (which tells the story of the 1994 theft of Edvard Munch’s The Scream from the National Gallery in Oslo). This latter book won the 2006 Edgar Award in the Best Crime Fact category. The Forger’s Spell is Dolnick’s most recent book.

Death With Interruptions, José Saramago

In an unnamed country on January 1, the unthinkable happens: no one dies. People poised on the edge of death remain living, their suffering intact, their families unsure of what to make of this. While the population at large celebrates their seeming immortality, the government worries, the funeral and life insurance industries despair, and those caring for the gravely ill find their loved ones’ suffering difficult to watch and their own prolonged responsibilities seemingly endless. Only the borders of other countries offer relief, and soon this kind of relief is handled by a not-entirely-legitimate organization. This is the first half of the novel, a parable in Saramago’s best style, humorous and dark but full of questioning. In the second half, we meet death herself (the small “d” is deliberate, her choice), who returns to her work with one additional piece: a week’s warning in the form of a violet envelope. It works beautifully, except for one letter destined for a cellist in the national symphony orchestra, a mild-mannered bachelor who lives alone with his dog. Transferring to a human form in order to hand the envelope directly to this man, death experiments with life. (Diane Magras)

About the Author: José Saramago was born in Azinhaga, Portugal in 1922 to peasant parents. He was taken out of school at age 12 to attend technical school, and his first job was as a mechanic. He later became a reporter, a newspaper editor, then a translator, and it was this latter work that allowed him to focus on writing. His first success was Memorial do Convento in 1982 (translated as Baltasar and Blimunda). The Year of the Death of Ricado Reis, The Stone Raft, The History of the Siege of Lisbon, and others followed, up to Blindness in 1995, and in 1998 he received the Nobel Prize in literature. He has written many novels since, and all show common elements: Saramago’s biting humor, but also his gentleness; it is no mistake that a friendly dog plays a part in almost all of his works. Death with Interruptions is his latest novel.