Among other books used during a volunteer reader training in Winslow last September, Born to Read offered Kitten's First Full Moon, illustrated and written by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollinsPublishers). Kitten's First Full Moon tells the story of a sensitive young kitten who thinks the moon is a bowl of milk. The illustrations use black, white, gray, and pink, printed on cream-colored paper, and rely on circles to create a comforting pattern.

We are pleased to announce that Kitten's First Full Moon has received the 2005 Caldecott Medal, one of the most esteemed prizes in children's literature. Caldecott Award Chair Betsy Hearne writes, "Kitten's frustration and eventual triumph‹emotions familiar to young children‹find artistic expression in a meticulously crafted book with classic appeal. "It was an interesting coincidence that a special guest at the Winslow training was author/illustrator Gratia Banta, who will be the chair of the 2006 Caldecott Award committee.

Kitten's First Full Moon is now on the list of books from which childcare pro heritage providers choose when they first join the volunteer reader program. Providers select one paperback or board book for a child to take home, as well as three hardcover books for their own collections. Kitten's First Full Moon has proved a popular choice.

For a list of other books offered to childcare pro heritage providers in the volunteer reader program, glance at this Bibliography, as a word document or pdf file.

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Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care® will soon be starting up at two new sites — Sweetser Family Service in Brunswick and Spring Harbor Hospital in Westbrook.

Literature & Medicine will be at a total of 17 sites in Maine this year. In addition, other partners will be using the Maine Humanities Council's Literature & Medicine model (and aid from the MHC office) for Literature & Medicine programs. In all, this project will be serving 54 sites across the country.

Lizz Sinclair, program officer for Literature & Medicine, says that support letters for the program's growth to other states have been pouring in, reminding her in the midst of an enormous amount of administrative work how crucial and powerful the program really is.

For more information about Literature & Medicine, go to its online newsletter Synapse.

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Visit the link below for details of programs that the MHC funds in whole or in part by providing grants. We hope you have the opportunity to experience one of these projects and see the difference that the MHC grant program makes.

MHC Grant-Funded Event Calendar

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This is not an especially recent publication, but Deedee Schwartz brought this to my attention and suggested that I should share this fascinating book by a member of the MHC family.

Published in July 2003 by Tillbury House, Andrea Hawkes's The Same Great Struggle: The History of the Vickery Family of Unity Maine, 1634-1997 is a story about place and family written as a moving human story. The publisher writes:

With the story of one American family — the Vickerys of Unity, Maine — Andrea Hawkes tells the history of our country and explores the power of connections.

Drawing in part from the extensive genealogical research of the late James B. Vickery III, Hawkes shapes a continuum of family stories that is richly peopled and finely detailed. From peril and tragedy in Puritan fishing communities, to "following a trail of spotted trees through the woods" to Unity, to the experiences and attitudes of women on remote sheep ranches in Montana, Hawkes keeps a keen historian's eye on the facts while weaving a fascinating tale.

In 2004, Andrea Hawkes was a presenter at the MHC's Teaching American History Summer Institute.

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"As a Born to Read volunteer at ACAP Child Care Center in Houlton, I bring in two new books every week to read with infants and toddlers. With that young age group, having two in my lap at a time seems to work out best, or sitting on the floor with several around me. The children also bring me other books to read from the variety on display in their rooms. We have fun together looking at pictures and enjoying the simple story. Naming colors, counting, rhyming, and identifying objects and animals are all part of every week's activities-vocabulary lessons galore! Often when I first arrive, a 12-month-old will grab a book in the room and hand it to me. My face means 'reading,' apparently, although their regular caregivers also read to them a lot. Even among the pre-one-year-old set, books are loved by all." — RSVP Volunteer

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Notes from an Open Book welcomes feedback from its readers. Please contact Diane Magras by email at diane@mainehumanities.org or by phone at (207)773-5051 ext. 208 (toll-free 1-866-637-3233, ext. 208) to respond.