The Toadstool Bookshops of Keene, Milford, and Peterborough, NH

There is no better introduction to poetry and the classical world than Gilbert Highet’s Poets in a Landscape. Not only a beautiful look at the relationship between poets and their surroundings, both urban and rural, but as the fantastic chapter on Cattulus illustrates, an exploration of their emotional landscapes as well. If you at all enjoy poetry, history, and literary criticism, Poet’s in a Landscape is not to be missed.

Writer, Aaron McCloud, picks up and moves to a remote part of western Ireland after failing to woo one of the students in his writing class. There he lives with his aunt, also a writer, whose profession is rewriting the classics. On his arrival, he is adopted by a pig on a hillside overlooking town, and which follows Aaron wherever he goes. A mystery begins when the pig digs up a body buried in the garden, and Aaron isn’t sure if the culprit might be his aunt, or Lolly Mckeever, a woman he has become attracted to, and whom his aunt claims used to own the pig. Caldwell has an easy, humorous style that makes the Irish landscape come alive and the characters as important as the mystery Aaron tries to solve.

In this (nearly) wordless picture book, even the cover is wordless. It is Pinkney’s amazing illustrations and design that bring the story powerfully and gracefully to life. Pinkney sets the fable in the Serengeti, "so awesome yet fragile — not unlike the two sides of each of the heroes" he states in the artist’s notes. What a spectacular book, and a wonderful gift idea.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was born out of Grace Lin’s love of the Chinese folk tales her mother shared with her along with other classics she read as a child, like East of the Sun, West of the Moon, The Light Princess, and The Wizard of Oz. The story features Minli, who sets out on a quest to bring fortune to her family and the rest of the desolate Valley of the Fruitless Mountain. She meets many characters that intersperse her story with captivating folk tales. The book is beautifully produced with illustrations by Grace.

Mary McHugh’s once happy family struggles to keep going when her father is seriously injured in a mining accident. Set in a Colorado mining town in 1890, Family Reminders is reminiscent of the Little House books in its period flavor and strong family bond. It is a story of family joys and trials told in a way that younger readers will be able to understand.