Where Maine Reads will be out at the end of 2023. Photos by Buddy Doyle. This book will include portraits and personal essays that explore special places Mainers like to read. Stay tuned for more details!
When my granddaugter,Penney, was four she pointed to a photograph pinned to my fridge and said: “Look! It’s a person in a wheelchair just like my friend.”
I spend a lot of time with Penney – she and her sister and parents live 5 minutes away – and I’d never heard from her or anyone else about someone in their lives who used a wheelchair. So I asked her which friend she was talking about.
“My friend in my book, Skinnamarink!”
We went over to the living room and pushed through the piles of children’s books we keep there. Penney pulled out Skinnamarink and we started reading.
“Skinnamarinky dinky dink, skinnamarinky doo, I love you!” Penney sang with me.
As we read and sang the song again Penney pointed out the little girl in the wheelchair who was dancing with her friends throughout the book.
For me, the beauty of reading to my grandchildren is moments exactly like this. Penney has friends on pages, friends who live worlds away from us in central Maine, friends of all backgrounds and body types. Books—and especially when she has an adult to help her read them over and over again—broaden her world, her sense of empathy, and her sense of self.
DISCOVER YOUR WORLD 