Anna Egan Smucker Livres

Anna Egan Smucker is a poet of the sacred: of trees and rivers, memory and loss, body and story. Her distinct and compassionate voice bears witness to violence, injustice, heartbreak. and transformation, and offers an anchor amid the falling and dissolving of this life. Rowing Home is a book to share and to come back to. Don’t miss it!George Ella Lyon, Kentucky Poet Laureate 2015-2016 Sorrow and loss may be a bitter weed that “forces its way through my flowers,” but like Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet Anna Smucker recalls to us the sacrament ever renewed in the natural world, calling us to celebrate all that is “green and holy” in our lives.Valerie Nieman, author of Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse Without ever losing her focus on concrete observations of the natural world and human lives, Anna Egan Smucker fills Rowing Home with glints of history, current events, rivers, dogs, trees, and a baker whose pizzelle cookies become a sacrament. The poems are condensed, supple, and many-layered, opening us to the toll industry and war take on human bodies, to the mind of a mass murderer, to participants in the Irish Revolution, and to what it feels like when a nursing mother’s milk unexpectedly lets down. In the final poems, she even captures a mystical rent in the veil between this world and the others.Meredith Sue Willis, author of Their Houses, Out of the Mountains, and other books

Set against the backdrop of South Manitou Island in 1871, the story follows twelve-year-old Jessie, whose family has long maintained the lighthouse. After her grandfather's death, Jessie fears losing their home and hides her mother's letter to the Lighthouse Service, a decision that leads to significant consequences during a fierce storm. Through her journey, Jessie learns valuable lessons about honor, responsibility, and bravery, making this a captivating tale for children aged 8 to 12 that intertwines regional history with essential life lessons.

Brother Giovanni is a happy man and the best baker his monastery has ever seen, but when he is tasked with preparing the children for the Bishop's visit, he has no luck until he twists some bread dough into a special shape, sprinkles it with salt, and offers it as a reward for learning prayers.