Ollie Gives a Hoot! By Ellen Krawczak

Local Eastern Shore author Ellen Krawczak offers an interesting array of animals in her children’s book Ollie Gives a Hoot! Ollie, the main character is a grouch—he won’t come to a party or talk to anyone. As an owl, he sleeps during the day and hunts during the night. He has very good hearing which is makes him angry when the other animals make too much noise. This happens in real life to children when their parents are watching television and YouTube. The noises are sometimes disturbing and scary to children who are trying to fall asleep.

In the thirty-five-page book, the reader meets more than twelve animals and is challenged by difficult word choices like “massive” and “emphatically.” The text is large enough for a Step 2 reader, but the story and the language are challenging enough for a Step 3. Ellie, our Step 5 reader/reviewer thought the book was easy to read, but she enjoyed the story.

The book teaches the lesson that it is good to make friends, even if you don’t want to or would rather be alone. The theme of community is strong. Even though Ollie is a loner and does not want to be included in the monkey’s party, when the animals are threatened, he warns them before any of them can get hurt. In the end, Ollie finds a way to be part of the community, but he still acts like an owl—independent and nocturnal.

Illustrator Adam Farver depicts each animal character in a cartoon-like style, and each is full of personality. ZoZo Zebra has wide eyes and long, flirty eyelashes where Ollie Owl wears an angry look on his bowl-shaped face. The only human characters are shown as shadow hunters threatening the animals.

Ellen Krawczak delivers a strong message in this modern folktale populated by animals who need each other yet retain their unique personalities. Ellie and I are looking forward to her new book featuring ZoZo Zebra.

Signed copies of Ollie Gives a Hoot are available for purchase at Greyhound Indie Bookstore and Fine Art Gallery in downtown Berlin, Maryland.

by Ellie and Joan Cooper

www.joandcooper.com

@BirdsLikeMe

The Power in Words by Meaghan Axel

During these past months dominated by the threat of the virus, experts have cautioned us to take care of ourselves. SEL or social emotional learning has become the rapid response for the frightened, the weary, and the isolated. The universality of the message is this—take time for yourself. We are all in a state of anxiety over a critical and uncontrollable situation.

At the same time, the call for social justice has sounded. Silence is not the answer. Words have power.

The Power in Words might be presented as a children’s book, but it offers a valuable resource for parents and caregivers. Scenarios are presented on facing pages where a child grapples with bullying, rumors, making friends, complimenting others, using the written word, and self-doubt. The child is troubled by each dilemma but empowered by positive decisions. Having a plan in the face of these challenges is the key.

 The illustrator has carefully balanced a racially diverse series of featured characters of both sexes, delivering an equitable and universal appeal. The book ends with self-affirmations and guiding set of questions for healthy discussions with children.

While reviewing the book, I met with one of my 14-year-old students in a Google Meet coach class. I showed him the pages, and we reviewed the book together. He particularly responded to affirmation pages. He felt that The Power in Words might have been written for younger children, but its message was just as important to teenagers.

As the mother of a child who spent years in counseling learning to self-affirm instead of descending into negative “self-talk” (which is directly discussed in the book), I see the need for children as young as my five-year-old grandchild to see herself as powerful, unique, and strong enough to withstand the onslaught of peer pressure, social media, and self-doubt. The Power of Words is an excellent choice to begin that journey toward balanced selfhood.

Of course, signed copies of The Power of Words by Meaghan Axel are available at the Greyhound Independent Bookstore and Fine Arts Gallery in lovely Berlin, Maryland.

Review by Joan Drescher Cooper, poet, writer and teacher www.joandcooper.com @BirdsLikeMe

Focus on Health and Happiness

The end of February brings a slight warming, particularly today as the sun emerges and the temperatures shoot up in the forties. After all that rain, snow and ice, the bulbs in the front garden are breaking the surface, and birds grub on the roadside and fill the air with their chittering. Some of us are ending a long time enclosed in the warmth and the protection of our homes. Yes, we must continue to mask and keep our distance, but we must also take care of ourselves.

Always popular, self-care books continue to help as we break out of the cocoon of quarantine. At The Greyhound Indie Bookstore, one of the most popular recent titles has been Wintering-The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. May takes the reader with her through a year of investigation and reflection into how to learn to take life the way you find it by “living the best life you can with the parameters that you have.” The book is anecdotal but May richly interlards wisdom from around and the world and from diverse thinkers.

Not in your usual self-care realm, local author, professor and biologist, Joan Maloof’s Teaching the Trees:  Lessons from the Forest walks the reader into a mediative and informative collections of essays about the natural world of the Eastern United States. The interdependence she describes between the different types of trees and wildlife is a revelation. Read one of Maloof’s essays on beech trees, maples, or sycamore and try to take a turn outside without seeing everything more vividly.

During quarantine, many of us took to walking every day to relieve the stress of screen time and the insularity of our homes. As you release yourself slowly back into the world, try to retain some of what you have learned from this full year of change. One of my students said it best about learning to “tune in” to the natural world in this way:  he said he started to see “all the colors.”

Wintering by Katherine May and signed copies of Joan Maloof’s Teaching the Trees are available at The Greyhound Indie Books Store & Fine Arts Gallery of Berlin, Maryland.

The Health & Happiness Book Group Reading List includes:

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear 

Chasing Alice by Stephanie Fowler

Judgment Detox: Release the Beliefs That Hold You Back from Living A Better Life by Gabrielle Bernstein 

Teaching the Trees by Joan Maloof

The Finnish Way: Finding Courage, Wellness, and Happiness Through the Power of Sisu by Katja Pantzar 

The Serenity Passport: A World Tour of Peaceful Living in 30 Words by Megan C Hayes

Wintering by Katherine May

The Health & Happiness Book Group meets at The Greyhound every 2nd Wednesday at 1 p.m.

Tracks by Maria Grosskettler

The main characters of Tracks by Maria Grosskettler are young enough at twelve-years-old to classify this debut novel as young adult, but the tight mystery set in Berlin makes it a good choice for adult readers. The novel begins with a pair of mysteries—in the first, a famous actress’ private life and the other, a fifty-year-old missing person’s case. These mysteries interweave with the main character Natalie Carpenter’s angst as she aches to leave the small town she finds stifling. She literally runs into another twelve-year-old named John Paul, and the two become absorbed with spying on strangers and neighbors. Everybody has secrets in this mystery-adventure.

 After the duo become involved in untangling mysteries, the reader is treated to a tour of Berlin including an abandoned train station, a famously-haunted hotel, one treasure trove of a museum, and other familiar locales. The Calvin B. Taylor House and the Atlantic Hotel are given generous treatment as is the Queponco Train Station in Newark. 

 Grosskettler weaves the story of the two young investigators with their struggles against internal conflicts. The adventures involve listening and thinking as well as daring escapes and rescues. Both characters recognize their weaknesses and try to move away from the past.

 As a high school teacher, I have an excuse to keep my middle years and young adult reading up to the current titles. Adults readers have been captured by excellent young adult writing in the past years such as the Harry Potter series, The Hate You Give, and the Hunger Games series, for example. Tracks by Maria Grosskettler would be a diverting read to share with a child of ten or over. Grosskettler offers characters who make mistakes, feel the pain or regret of poor decisions, and eventually learn from them. She also captures the quaint charm of one of the best small towns in America—Berlin, Maryland. 

Joan Cooper, Author

Chasing Alice by Stephanie Fowler

Chasing Alice by Stephanie L. Fowler reports and reflects on the true story of Alice Davis, life on the Eastern Shore, and the effect of a murder. An English teacher and chairman at Parkside High School in Salisbury, Alice Davis inspired many students, as chronicled by Fowler, to excel in future careers. She was named Wicomico County Teacher of the Year in 2000. She should be remembered for her excellence as a teacher and a mentor. Not for the mysteries surrounding her disappearance and death in 2011.

Fowler fights the human impulse to uncover Alice simply in terms of the day that she died. Though Fowler meticulously researches and recounts the events leading to the discovery of Alice’s body, she also rails against the voyeuristic urge to sensationalism.  She depicts Davis from her childhood, young adulthood, friendships and career. She catalogues a tribute to the very private Davis in the words of students, fellow teachers, relatives, and friends. The reader comes away with a grasp of the complexity of this admirable woman whose life was taken by her husband.

This book offers respite to those who knew Alice Davis, but it also serves as a warning to others involved with a controlling partner. Alice is all of us—trusting, a bit naïve, intelligent, and loving. We love and expect love in return. We want acceptance. We learn to forgive, even when embarrassed or humiliated. We want to see the best in loved ones. Alice paid the ultimate price for love when her husband of 26 years killed her and tried to cover up the crime. As Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote, “we wear the mask.” Both Alice Davis and her husband Jess wore the pretense of a happy marriage, but it had eroded into shame and mental abuse.

Alice was a normal person, but her world was torn to shreds because she chose to marry a man who might have been a sociopath. Fowler masterfully explains in layman’s term what a sociopath might look like and offers a laundry list of indicators. They are sobering. No one in Alice’s life was privy to the life she led at home.

One must remember that teachers are actors. We divorce ourselves from whatever life is tossing at us outside the school building and take the classroom stage from three to seven times a day depending on the schedule that year. We wear the mask of enthusiasm, poise, flexibility, and compassion. Then we go home to our problems, our joys, and our sorrows.

Stephanie L. Fowler comes into her own with Chasing Alice. Though the story is Eastern Shore in its locale and people, the theme is universal. We must be watchful. We must show compassion to the quiet ones who continue suffering in silence. Signed copies of Chasing Alice and Fowler’s Sophie Kerr Prize winning Crossroads are available at Greyhound Books of Berlin.

-Joan Cooper, Author