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Mary Lyn Ray
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Mary Lyn Ray wrote the highly regarded book Shaker Boy after studying Shaker life and working with some of the original Shaker material that is housed at Winterthur Museum and at the Canterbury Shaker Village. Mary Lyn now lives on a farm in New Hampshire where the land and its residents provide inspiration for the books she writes, books that are certain to delight children of all ages. |
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Alvah and Arvilla have lived for thirty-one years on their New England farm. And for thirty-one years Arvilla has wanted to see the Pacific Ocean. But you can't tend a farm and travel, says Alvah. There are cows to milk morning and night, and horses and hens and sheep to feed. No, you definitely can't have a farm and travel. Or can you?
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One night it happens. Maybe it begins in the warm of the day, but it's always at night that it happens. Earth comes unfrozen. And then there is...
MUD!
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Shaker Boy is an historically accurate fictional tale of life in a Shaker Community. When Caleb Whitcher is six years old, his father is killed in the Civil War. His mother, unable to provide for Caleb, leaves her son in the care of the Shakers at Canterbury, New Hampshire. In the Shaker community, Caleb, along with his 141 brothers and 138 sisters, learns Shaker songs, Shaker crafts and Shaker ways.
This delightful book is an enjoyable way for the young and old alike to learn about everyday life in a Shaker Village in the 1800's.
The book contains more than 40 color illustrations which were done by Jeanette Winter, winner of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 1991 Award.
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A young boy grows up playing among the ash, oak, hickory, and maple trees that surround his home. He admires his father's basket-making skills and anticipates the time when he will be allowed to join him on his monthly selling trip to the big city. But the boy is unprepared for the taunts of "hillbilly" and "bushwhacker" he encounters there.
This poetic story captures the moment when a child becomes aware that the outside world doesn't view him or his family as he does. Embarrassed and ashamed, the boy questions his future as a basket-maker. He finds the answer in the sound of the wind blowing through those same trees around his home.
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