Lessons from Apple Trees, Rainy Days, and Johnny Woodchuck - Softcover

Ellen Holmes Baer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0982184816 ISBN 13: 9780982184813

Publisher: Words & Spirit, 2005

Synopsis

Lessons from Apple Trees, Rainy Days, and Johnny Woodchuck is a collection of art and essays by writer Ellen Holmes Baer and artist Joyce Hopkins, two friends whose original intent was to provide Christmas gifts for friends and family. Now in its third printing, the book remains a favorite for gift giving. Described in a local paper as delightful and enlightening, the essays are inspired by experiences as long ago as Baer's Mississippi childhood and as recent as the election of 2004.

About this title

About the Author

Born and raised in Mississippi, Ellen Holmes Baer lived in France, Canada, and Italy before moving to North Carolina in 1987. She pursued a career in public relations and corporate communications. At present she and her husband live in a rural community north of Durham with a dog, six chickens, and twelve ducks. They have two grown sons and two grandchildren, all living in faraway places.

Review

Ellen Baer didn't set out to write the great American novel. She just collected the essays she had written from time to time as a gift to friends and family. And they all loved the essays so much they convinced her to reprint Lessons from Apple Trees, Rainy Days, and Johnny Woodchuck so they could share it with others. Baer and illustrator Joyce Hopkins decided to do a reprint and to sell the books at independent bookstores. And, said Baer, since peace is a major theme in what she calls a little book highlighting her own life s lessons, she and Hopkins decided to donate the proceeds to an organization that works for peace. Episcopal Relief and Development, the relief and rehabilitation arm of the Episcopal Church, has been providing aid to victims of disasters since 1940. It will benefit from sales of a book that should be on the best seller lists. We hear a lot about voice in literature. Baer's voice shines brilliantly in that essay. As it does in each one in the collection. The voice is, like Baer's spoken words, soft but strong. Quiet but powerful. Baer jokes that she and Hopkins decided to reprint the book after having received rave reviews from unbiased friends, spouses, siblings, and one mother-in-law. But this truly unbiased critic offers her rave review here today. The author knows how to capture the moment, which is what a good essay does. She also knows how to make a big statement using a few well chosen words. And she says what she says in a way that is informative, imaginative, entertaining, and enlightening. It's no secret, Baer said, that calamities and suffering can lead to great learning and transformation, but most of us would prefer calamity-free learning, even if it means lesser insights and smaller transformations. That's certainly my preference, and that's what this book offers nothing earthshaking, nothing sensational but ordinary experiences that can still give us a chance to learn something and change our lives, one idea at a time. Her ideas are certainly worth reading, over and over again. --Phyliss Boatwright, Book Editor, The Courier-Times, Roxboro NC, April 9, 2005

Edition details

• Publisher: Words & Spirit
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0982184816
• ISBN 13: 9780982184813
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 62
• Illustrator: Joyce Hopkins