Five years ago, my husband and I decided to take our then two small children to Maine for a week to “see how we liked it,” the notion of which, for anyone who lives in/ spends summers in/has visited Vacationland, sounds absolutely preposterous. Life in Maine is, after all, the way life should be. There is not much—aside from the 12 hour drive that separates it from our home in Virginia—not to like. And we have returned every summer since.
From it’s sparkling southern coast to the charming towns of the iconic midcoast, torn straight from the pages of an L.L. Bean catalog, to Acadia with its surrounding “Harbors” of varying vibes and all manner of lakes, farms and mountains further inland, summer in Maine feels quintessentially nostalgic, a place where a truly carefree, vintage childhood can unfold.
And because it feels so distinctly whimsical, almost as if crafted over the generations specifically to hold the Time of Wonder that is childhood (see what I did there?) the summer aura of Maine and its sister New England getaways of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and all the gem locales between is best captured in children’s books, specifically beautifully illustrated picture books. The kind that work themselves into a family’s culture the way grains of sand from a day spent on Maine’s rocky coast work their way into a carseat.
I hadn’t set out to write this post, really. There are, in fact, dozens more in the hopper that I had hoped to give my attention to this week. But as I was stuffing our seasonal book basket chock full of well-worn family favorites, their familiar pages beckoned me to share our beloved little late-summer library, curated over the years from shops in Kennebunkport’s Dock Square, gifts from friends and family, and in the pursuit of local or little known authors and artists and children’s classics alike.
Whether any given week in the summer finds me in our own home in central Virginia, reckoning with the crispy grass and intolerable humidity amongst which Thomas Jefferson and several other founding fathers somehow saw fit to make their homes (we all know autumn is Virginia’s shining season), or soaking in an evening stroll on Kennebunk’s Mother’s Beach, nautical-striped cotton sweater tossed over the warmer day’s swimsuit and shorts, in reading them I have found that I, alongside my children, become Sal, traversing across Penobscot Bay One Morning in Maine, or Miss Rumphius, scattering seeds to make the world more beautiful, or the lighthouse keeper’s wife saying Hello Lighthouse while arriving by boat to care for her new husband, or Ack the Nantucket Duckling, afraid of being different before being celebrated for those exact differences at an annual local parade.
We have inhabited these stories each summer, finding adventure in a day spent picking blueberries, going lobstering, or painting the sea, and they have brought richness to our annual retreat to Maine and wonder to the ordinary dog days spent in our relatively land-locked home.
Despite the title of this piece, I’m confident there are many more nostalgic New England summer titles out there that we’ve yet to discover. So if, in fact, there’s one missing that’s near and dear to your heart, please drop it in the comments for all to see (and for me to snap up for our library in a hurry).
Happy reading, happy summer!
“One morning in Maine, Sal woke up. She peeked over the top of the covers. The bright sunlight made her blink, so she pulled the covers up and was just about to go back to sleep when she remember, ‘today is the day I am going to Buck’s Harbor with my father!’”
-Robert McCloskey, One Morning in Maine
Burt Dow, Deep-Water Man (not pictured, found in the McCloskey Treasury)
Hattie and the Wild Waves (not pictured)
World More Beautiful: The Life and Art of Barbara Cooney by Angela Burke Kunkel (not pictured)
Hello Lighthouse by Sophia Blackall
Breaking Waves: Winslow Homer Paints the Sea by Robert Burleigh and Wendell Minor
The Little Island by Margaret Wise Brown
Ack! The Nantucket Duckling by A.K. Spurway
The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman (not distinctly New England, but their piney cottage by the water gives me all the Maine-y summer vibes)
Grandma Drove the Lobsterboat by Katie Clark
The Summer Visitors by Karel Hayes
Counting Our Way to Maine by Maggie Smith (Our family favorite!)
A Wee Sea Shanty by Rihanna Jones
Lobsterman by Dahlov Ipcar
Dahlov Ipcar’s Maine Alphabet by Dahlov Ipcar (not pictured, trapped in a napping toddlers room at the time of this photographing)
L is for Lobster: A Maine Alphabet by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds (not pictured)
Going Lobstering by Jerry Pallotta
Summer by Gerda Muller
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