Beautiful bird illustrations and poems

Captivated by the beautiful illustration of a bird on the cover of From Nana’s Window, a quick glance at the author’s name told me it is Margaret Grouse. Very appropriate for a book about birds!

But I got that wrong. Her name is Margaret Gouse and she’s a recent college and law school graduate who grew up on Maine’s southern coast. As a young girl, she carried around her Audubon field guide to identify birds in her backyard.

I was entranced by the illustrations of Esther Safford, Margaret’s nana. And each illustration generated a short poem from Margaret, often including the calls of the bird.

Even if you are not an avid bird watcher, like Linda and me, you will enjoy both the poems and the illustrations in this book published by Maine Authors Publishing.

 

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.