A great kids’ book about Maine’s 200th birthday

It was a great idea to write a book that would help children celebrate Maine’s 200th birthday. And the book, Happy Birthday Maine, by Lynn Plourde, is fantastic. The awesome illustrations by Mark Scott Ricketts, who lives in Bangor, are sure to entertain kids, as they did me.

Lynn, who lives in Winthrop, has written more than 30 children’s books and won many awards. Happy Birthday Maine is certainly going to be an award winner.

In the book Paul Bunyan and his friend Moose, organize a spectacular celebration to which they invite everybody in Maine. I only wish I could have attended this celebration!

Published by Down East Books, I appreciated the way they incorporated Maine facts and history into the story, and at the end of the book is a long list of interesting things that happened throughout our history.

Please be sure to share this book with your children, grandchildren, and all the kids in your neighborhood, to help them celebrate Maine’s 200th birthday. And I guarantee that you will love the book too. I can’t wait to read it to my 3 and 5-year-old granddaughters.

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.