1. Happy June! Are you ready for the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer? In her charming watercolors, Louisiana artist Amariah Rauscher captures the magic of childhood play. Remember those long summer days when you had the leisure to daydream, look for fairies in the forest, befriend dragons or catch a falling star?

I was first drawn to Amariah’s treehouse pictures, delighted by the prospect of visiting a bakery, candy store, greenhouse, or ice cream shop perched high atop the branches. Of course there are lots of adorable animal friends to keep you company and share in the fun.

Amariah is the illustrator of the Princess Truly book series written by Kelly Greenawalt and published by Scholastic. She has a Masters in Communication but prefers spending her time painting pictures. She also enjoys reading, watching cartoons, playing board and video games and spending time with her two daughters. A peanut butter and jelly fan, she can attest to the joys of wearing slippery socks in order to slide into every room of her house.

To purchase prints, visit Amariah’s Etsy Shop, where in addition to treehouses, you can find other wonderful themes: In the Garden, To the Moon and Back; Kids, Elves and Fairies; Over and Under the Sea, Cute and Cuddly Animals, and my favorite, Sweeties. More at her Official Website, Facebook and Instagram. Amariah also welcomes commissions (contact her via her website).

Meet Princess Truly in this cute video:

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2. New Middle Grade Novel Alert: Coming out June 18 is The Last Apple Tree by Claudia Mills (Margaret Ferguson Books, 2024):

When feuding neighbors Sonnet and Zeke are paired up for a class project, they unearth a secret that could uproot Sonnet’s family—or allow it to finally heal and grow.

Twelve-year-old Sonnet’s family has just moved across the country to live with her grandfather after her nana dies. Gramps’s once-impressive apple orchard has been razed for a housing development, with only one heirloom tree left. Sonnet doesn’t want to think about how Gramps and his tree are both growing old—she just wants everything to be okay.

Sonnet is not okay with her neighbor, Zeke, a boy her age who gets on her bad side and stays there when he tries to choose her grandpa to interview for an oral history assignment. Zeke irks Sonnet with his prying questions, bringing out the sad side of Gramps she’d rather not see. Meanwhile, Sonnet joins the Green Club at school and without talking to Zeke about it, she asks his activist father to speak at the Arbor Day assembly—a collision of worlds that Zeke wanted more than anything to avoid. 

But when the interviews uncover a buried tragedy that concerns Sonnet’s mother, and an emergency forces Sonnet and Zeke to cooperate again, Sonnet learns not just to accept Zeke as he is, but also that sometimes forgetting isn’t the solution—even when remembering seems harder.

Award-winning author Claudia Mills brings enormous compassion and depth to this novel of unlikely friendship and generational memory.

I really enjoyed Claudia’s previous book, The Lost Language (Margaret Ferguson, 2021), and am anxious to read this one. The Last Apple Tree is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and has earned a **starred review** from Kirkus, who called it “A touching homage to the healing of old wounds and family relationships.”

Congratulations, Claudia!!!

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3. Heads Up, Fans of Video Book Reviews: It’s no secret I’m somewhat of a YouTube junkie. It feeds my hunger for good music, alternative news sources, book information, the latest gossip about the British Royal Family and more.

The last couple of years I’ve been tuning into The Vintage Read Show, hosted by Shauna Kay, a very entertaining and upbeat Aussie book lover and reviewer. Candid and congenial, she does excellent chapter-by-chapter reviews, deep dives into the big stories of the day, and is a pure pleasure to listen to.

Every Wednesday she does a “Gossip Before Bedtime” feature, where she sits down with a cup of tea for a chat about anything and everything. Dressed in her pjs, she’ll pause now and then, lift her cup and say “SIP,” inviting everyone to sip along.

She also offers “Snarky Snippets,” short videos of less than 5 minutes, where she takes on the persona of a blueblooded gossip columnist for sarcastic commentary on a current event. Too much fun! Recently she also started interviewing other YouTubers, also fun.

Love her Aussie accent and the fact that her reviews are thorough and balanced (I think she’s a bookseller or former bookseller, so her knowledge is vast). She features new books as well as older titles, and is a must watch if you’re into the Royals.

Enjoy this sample video from Shauna’s series about Prince Harry’s book Spare, where she casts doubt on some of the content about Meghan:

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4. Oh, you beautiful doll: Been admiring these papier-mâché dolls created by Maine artist Lora Soling. She has been sewing for over 50 years and has a lifelong interest in textiles and embroidery. Her work is just exquisite!

She grew up in a family of collectors and is inspired by antiques and vintage advertising and toys, etc. She makes all the clothing and jewelry for her dolls, which are meant to be evocative, rather than an accurate representation of a particular era. These dolls would be comfortable in homes full of antiques, folk art and Americana.

Lora was a floral designer for 17 years, worked in graphic design, and as a pattern maker for the apparel industry. She also had her own millinery studio and makes teddy bears and other animals in addition to dolls.

All of Lora’s dolls are one-of-a-kind. More recently she’s been making cloth dolls. To keep informed of any new pieces, sign up for her email list via her Official Website.

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5. Another New Book Alert: Also being released June 18 is Juneberry Blue by Candice Ransom (Peachtree, 2024):

Taking inspiration from Sleeping Beauty and charming small towns, this contemporary magical realism novel includes a mistaken destiny, a dying town, and a determined ghost cat.

Eleven-year-old Andie Jennings, of Morning Glory, Virginia (population: 8), is set to inherit her family’s magic on Midsummer’s Eve. And Andie plans to use it to bring her dad home for good from his long-haul trucking job. Except her gift doesn’t come.

But when a see-through cat starts following her, Andie realizes she didn’t fail to get her magic at all. Her gift just isn’t what anyone expected. Turns out, her new ability to communicate with the ghosts she can suddenly see may be the very thing that Morning Glory—and her own family—needs.

Inspired by storytelling and tales passed down through generations, Juneberry Blue celebrates the importance of listening to stories–and the people who tell them.

I was happy to read an ARC of this wonderful book and will be posting an interview with Candice next week. Eight years in the making, Juneberry Blue is my favorite of her middle grade novels. Love all the characters and the interweaving of fairy tales, history, folklore, magic and mystery in what is also a diner-centric story. So many mouthwatering foods!

Some 25 years ago, Len and I purchased two wooded acres from Candice, adjacent to the property where she grew up. We built our house among the woods where she played, explored, and scribbled her first stories. As a native Virginian, her innate knowledge of the area’s trails, backroads, flora, fauna, and regional colloquialisms lend a heartfelt authenticity to the story. I enjoyed the autobiographical elements too, like her love of animals, astronomy, sleuthing, and of course, her mom’s home-cooked meals. Don’t miss this one!

Congratulations, Candice!

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6. Sew Fabulous!: If you enjoy needlework, check out these lovely Susan Branch Alphabet Sampler kits. They’re available as either a stamped embroidery or counted cross stitch kit.

Finished size of the embroidery kit is 12″ x 15″. Kit includes: Pre-printed permanent ink design on 14″ x 18″ white Kona cotton fabric, DMC floss, needle, and instructions.

The finished size of the counted cross stitch kit is 8.5″ x 11″ on white 18 count Charles Craft fabric. Kit includes: DMC floss, needle, design chart, and instructions. 

Either would be nice framed or gracing a decorative pillow.

If you’re a Susan Branch fan, you probably know she’s selling her Martha’s Vineyard house and moving permanently to California. I was sad to hear this, as I love seeing the beautiful interiors of the MV home that she’s so generously shared with us for so many years. But of course I understand the hard decision she had to make and look forward to her continuing adventures on the West Coast.

Visit her Website Shop to order the needlework kits or to see all the other wonderful products available.

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7. Something To Savor: It’s been awhile since I’ve read any good food essays, so I was happy to see this new anthology: Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Ecco, 2024).

From the New York Times bestselling author of World of Wonders, a lyrical book of short essays about food, offering a banquet of tastes, smells, memories, associations, and marvelous curiosities from nature.

In Bite by Bite, poet and essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil explores the way food and drink evoke our associations and remembrances—a subtext or layering, a flavor tinged with joy, shame, exuberance, grief, desire, or nostalgia.

Nezhukumatathil restores our astonishment and wonder about food through her encounters with a range of foods and food traditions. From shave ice to lumpia, mangoes to pecans, rambutan to vanilla, she investigates how food marks our experiences and identities and explores the boundaries between heritage and memory.

Bite by Bite offers a rich and textured kaleidoscope of vignettes and visions into the world of food and nature, drawn together by intimate and humorous personal reflections, with Fumi Nakamura’s gorgeous imagery and illustration.

Just released at the end of April, this book has received many glowing reviews. I like that the author is also a poet; this usually translates into lyrical prose (and apparently some essays do contain poems).

Can’t wait to feast on it!

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8. The Gift of a Book: Have you ever reread a favorite book and felt like you’ve just reunited with a good friend?

This happened to me recently, when I picked up Helene Hanff’s 84, Charing Cross Road. I think I first read it in the mid to late 70s, and along with the 1971 British television series, “Upstairs, Downstairs,” it made me long to visit London. If you’re a book lover or English Literature major, you’ve probably read it too — or maybe you’ve seen the movie with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins.

Anyway, I don’t often reread books because there are just too many on my TBR list, but I’m glad I revisited Hanff’s correspondence with antiquarian bookseller Frank Doel of Marks & Co., because after finishing it, I just HAD to read Hanff’s The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street and Q’s Legacy: A Delightful Account of a Lifelong Love Affair with Books. These two books (which I subsequently inhaled) are both connected to 84, and since I don’t recall ever reading Duchess or Q, I think the universe was trying to prevent me from missing something important. 🙂

In the Duchess, Hanff finally gets to visit London after having corresponded with Doel for 20 years (sadly he died before she got there), and Q explains how she came to write 84. I was silently cheering throughout Duchess because I felt exactly the same as Hanff did when she first saw the London she was hoping to see, the London of English Literature. I’ve always liked epistolary memoirs and 84 ranks right up there in my top five.

If for some reason you haven’t read 84, please do! How I miss the days when people wrote real snail mail letters; how I envy Helene having connected with a bookseller who became a good friend and supplied her with many obscure titles she wouldn’t have been able to read otherwise. Personal service and loving attention like that are rare these days, not to mention the excitement of receiving book parcels from England!

Don’t you love it when one good book leads to another? And now, of course, I’m reading Hanff’s autobiography Underfoot in Show Business. I’m obsessed!

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9. By the Sea, By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea: Love UK artist Peter Adderley’s charming, cheery paintings. With his quirky characters, coastal reference points, and primarily BLUE palette, one feels as carefree as if on holiday. So refreshing!

Peter lives and works in North Devon; his studio overlooks the ocean, providing plenty of inspiration for his pictures, which evoke a bygone era. It’s a nice blend of whimsy, nostalgia and sophistication. And his animals have plenty of personality. 🙂

How much do I love “Abbey Road Beach”? 😍

Peter’s bright colorful art is widely available online as prints and posters at such sites as iCanvas, Elephant Stock, and AllPosters.com.

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This month’s Swoon Tune is one of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs. I always get nostalgic and a little sad whenever I hear “America” because it seems to resonate now more than ever.

Included on S&G’s 1968 “Bookends” album — released amidst much political turmoil and social upheaval (Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy assassinations, Vietnam War escalation) — this song surely captured the mood of the nation.

When I hear, “I’ve come to look for America,” I think — I don’t recognize our country anymore. Where’s the decency, civility, respect, courage of one’s convictions, national pride? What happened to compromise, working for the common good, one nation, under God? When did lying, hypocrisy, greed, power, and self service become the order of the day?

Back in 1968 I was in high school and still blessed with youthful optimism despite everything that was going on. But now – when I hear, “I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why,” the problem is that I DO know why. With another Presidential election looming and our country so divided, the democracy we all took for granted is at peril.

Here’s a great cover of “America” by Taylor Bloom and Ben Cooley, who played S&G in “The Simon and Garfunkel Story.” They weren’t even born when the song first came out, and seeing young people picking up the mantle like this gives me hope.

“And the moon rose over an open field . . . “

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HAPPY TUESDAY

HAPPY WEEK

CROON A JUNE TUNE

HAPPY 82nd BIRTHDAY TO PAUL MCCARTNEY ON JUNE 18

HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE ON JUNE 20

VISIT A USED BOOKSTORE

EAT PIE

THINK BLUE

VOTE BLUE

BE TRUE

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**Copyright © 2024 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.