Coast Calendar: A Saga in Salty Prose of One Year of Life on a Maine Saltwater Farm

It is one of those books that you should be careful of loaning out. The year progresses with growth and death and beautiful turns of phrase. Margin illustrations are elegant, and is wonderful for getting the attention of the young child on your lap. They will absorb the spoken word while "reading" the story progressing on the pages...a single-color version of the Jan Brett's brilliance. But do not think this is a dummied down book. This is the style of Hemmingway at its finest. Coffin describes the Coastal Mainlander as a centaur--half land, half sea, and you laugh out loud right after the pang of sorrow. This is the book that a child reading out loud can use to entertain the whole family. All ages (children, parents, grand-parents) are represented and all actions in between (fishing, ice, harvesting, canning, craftsmanship). Even the most reluctant reader will have to struggle not to read the sub-adventures of the youngest son because the author uses the old-fashioned but correct term "butts" for the rear end, and this is a lively little boy, his "busy butts" are always moving! If you've shivered in the cold, baked in the heat, enjoyed food fresh from the sea or burned your first meal as a married couple, you will be hard pressed not to smile. I'd say it was a time capsule of a forgotten era, but reading it tells you just how close man is to the surrounding world--if the only way to school is by walking on ice, you'd do it if you wanted an education. Again--not a book to lend out casually. I let a normally amazingly honest person read my copy...and that was the last I saw it for 12 years!!!!