Book signing today

Not mine, of course. My mother-in-law is signing her most recent book "Opening Day" at the Flying Pig Book Store in Shelburne at 11 this morning. Sam and I are going to head over to see her and give her a hard copy of the review in the local free paper Seven Days.

I just copied this from the the website since I know the links won't last forever. I find it interesting that instead of reviewing the book itself, the article reviews the subject matter. I get the feeling the author is vegan and is trying to be neutral about the book subject.

Picture Book Helps Kids Prepare for Opening Day by Margot Harrison
BOOKS (11.07.07)

These days, kid lit doesn’t shy away from a lot of potentially controversial topics — adoption, gay parents, disability. But when it comes to young ’uns carrying guns, publishers can get jumpy. That’s what Calais author Susan Bartlett found when she pitched Opening Day, a picture book about hunting for the 8-to-11-year-old set, to “about a dozen” houses in New York, she says. Though Bartlett has published five previous children’s books, including two from Viking, this time she found that publishers “took a censorious position about the subject matter,” she says. “They said it was wrong; they felt it was not an appropriate subject for a children’s book.”

That’s surprising, considering that Opening Day isn’t exactly a pro-hunting tract. Its protagonist is Sam, a sixth-grader who lives in a rural area with his non-hunting family: “Mom was a total vegetarian — Dad, almost.” His first deer hunt is primarily a way to bond with his friend Eric, whose folks are more traditional. Bartlett is careful to note that Sam has passed the required hunter education course. By the end, he’s discovered that hunting is “not for him. At least not now.”

Given Sam’s reluctance to hurt a deer — and the portrayal of Eric’s family as responsible sportsmen who eat what they kill and share with the neighbors — why did publishers object? “I think it’s simply a result of their being totally cut off from rural life,” Bartlett says. “They can’t get beyond the fact that they feel it’s not good to kill an animal.”

Bartlett says the idea for the book came from state librarians, who “say kids come in and want books on hunting, and there aren’t any.” A small Maine publisher called Tilbury House also “sensed the need,” she says. It put out the book with oil-painted illustrations by Maine artist Luanne Wrenn, which evoke both the grandeur of the deer in their habitat and the camaraderie of a small-town diner on opening day.

Though Bartlett’s son started hunting at age 12, she’s never been out herself. “But I am sympathetic toward those who do love hunting,” she says. “Through writing the book, I have come to better understand their point of view.” That process involved research into “deer habitat, deer habits, what guns children might use.” Bartlett also consulted Fish and Wildlife officials in Vermont, Ohio and Wyoming, looking for a “national perspective,” she says.

Bartlett gave her first reading at Montpelier’s Bear Pond Books last Saturday — which happened to be the first day of Youth Deer Hunting Weekend, designed to encourage young hunters. Some of her listeners “came right from the woods,” she says. “They were so excited to find a book on hunting for children.”

The author will read again this Saturday, November 10 — rifle-season opening day — at the Flying Pig Bookstore Loft in Shelburne, at 11 a.m. For info, call 985-3999.


I prefer this review from the Rutland Herald.

Author pens children's book on hunting October 14, 2007
By PETER HIRSCHFELD Staff Writer

CALAIS – Most animals inhabiting the colorful pages of children's books have names.

Babar the Elephant, say. Or Curious George. And it's easy to see why: Mischievous monkeys with human names sell books. Lots of them. So do other stories that anthropomorphize non-sentient creatures.

A Calais author, though, has bucked the publishing industry's fixation on the warm-and-fuzzy in favor of a children's book that more accurately reflects our culture's relationship with the wild.

"Opening Day" is the first book for elementary school children about deer hunting. Bambi it isn't. But Susan Bartlett's narrative weaves the earnest innocence of youth with the proud, if oft misunderstood, tradition of hunting.

"There is, I've found, a lot of prejudice against doing a book for kids that involves deer hunting on the part of the New York editors," Bartlett said from the dining room of her 19th century farmhouse this week. "They were quite dismissive and discouraging.

"The knee-jerk repulsion might not reflect savvy marketing prowess. Nearly two million kids aged 6 to 15 took to the woods with guns in 2000, according to the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife Associated Recreation. The number comprises a small cross section (4.2 percent) of the age group as a whole, but Bartlett and her publisher are hopeful the story will fast find spots on the bookshelves of this niche market base.

"Most of them have no experience with hunting," Bartlett says of publishing houses that rejected her pitch. "There they are in their high rise offices in New York with no exposure to the sport."

Tilbury House, a Maine publishing outfit known for its offbeat children's fare, saw potential. They paired Bartlett's words with the paintings of Maine illustrator Luanne Wren and in May, "Opening Day" went to press.

The story follows Sam as he sets out on his inaugural deer hunting trip. Set in a rural anytown, the sixth-grader joins his best friend and friend's father for an epic wind through the majesty of wilderness.

"It's more about being out in the woods, respecting nature, learning how to read deer signs," she says.T

he book was inspired in part by Bartlett's son, Ben, who took up hunting as a teenager (her grandson, incidentally, happens to be named Sam, though Bartlett calls the name a happy coincidence). Bartlett, an Illinois transplant, has called Vermont home for close to four decades."I've learned a lot about hunting from him and how responsible and caring hunters can be and how important hunting can be in terms of keeping the deer herd from exploding," Bartlett says. "He broadened my outlook on the sport."

Bartlett, a mentor to elementary school children, says the book is meant to fill a void in libraries in Vermont and the rest of the country.

"Vermont's school librarians have says we don't have any books here for when hunting season opens," Bartlett says.

The book, aimed at 7- to 10-year-olds, is hardly a manifesto. Sam's friend comes from a rich hunting tradition, but Sam's own mother is a vegetarian. Sam's eagerness betrays him at the moment of truth, and he is ultimately relieved by his lack of success. The body count in this book is zero, so there's no blood. And Sam learns to respect hunting even as he decides he's not cut out for the sport.

"There's a theme of friendship, how kids can be buddies even though they may come from slightly different perspectives," Bartlett says.

Bartlett, author of five children's books, including "The Seal Island School" (Viking Press, 1999) and "The Seal Island Seven" (Viking, 2002), spent the bulk of her career as a children's book editor. She has also taught children's book writing at the University of Vermont.

"It is a common misunderstanding that writing for children is a simple task," Bartlett says. "On the contrary, it is extremely difficult. ... It takes every bit as much expertise and facility with words to fashion a story for the fifth and sixth grade, though it might be shorter, than it does to write a novel for adults."

In November, as Vermont's outdoorsmen take to the forests and dales, Bartlett presents her most recent work at Bear Pond Books in Montpelier. The Nov. 3 book signing begins at 11 a.m.

It is a controversial subject matter. I'm not at all surprised at the reaction of the NY editors to this story. I've mentioned the book and book signing to friends here in Burlington and get a mixed reaction. Many people I know here are on the vegetarian end of the spectrum and I'm often hesitant to even mention that Ben hunts to many of them. Hunting is so far out of their rhelm of experience that they're shocked that someone they know actually hunts. I also think I see a big old warning sign going on in their heads "Guns in the house, must not allow children to enter" although I sometimes wonder if I see that because I'm looking for it. I also believe that because Ben hunts we're much more tuned in to the dangers associated with gun ownership than many people who may have just a single gun that belonged to their father/grandfather/mother/favorite uncle who don't consider themselves gun owners because they don't use the gun that's sitting on the top shelf of the coat closet. We can't be cavalier in our attitude toward guns and we certainly don't want Sam ever thinking that guns are toys.

If Sam stumbles upon the gun hidden on the top shelf of a friend's coat closet he'll have the sense to know that it's something he should not touch. Ben told me that he and his friends regularly found guns in other people's houses as a kid. I wonder if the people who pretend guns don't exist teach their children anything about gun safety and what to do if they should stumble across one somewhere? That's an important lesson no matter where your beliefs lie.