The Place Where We Live
Ken Bradbury and Steve Varble, illustrator
Bookkrafters, Jacksonville
Lifelong teacher Ken Bradbury of Arenzville is well known in these parts as playwright and theater director. He has had more than 300 plays and musicals published. Designing and building theater sets for numerous Bradbury productions was freelance designer Steven Varble of Chapin. He and Bradbury rubbed elbows often.
Only to be expected of two extremely productive guys sharing space and time together, Bradbury and Varble ventured on to produce a 67-page hardcover book, The Place Where We Live. Bradbury wrote the text; Varble illustrated the verse. Alive with color and humor, the book is based loosely on the Jacksonville area. There are allusions to the colleges, the infamous General Grierson, the statue on the square, local businesses and more. But you don’t have to be from Jacksonville to love the book.
Reading somewhat like a Shel Silverstein trove, the verses are fun and whimsically illustrated with cartoon-like images that amuse and pull in both child and adult. Bradbury’s “Welcome” sets the stage “The place where I live is a marvelous place…/A magical place…/Fantastical place…/Of all the places, this is my space./I’ll bet it’s a whole lot like yours.”
Books are available for $20 in Jacksonville at Our Town Books and Jacksonville Savings Bank. The pair will also sell copies at the Jacksonville Celebration, May 18. A portion of the proceeds benefit the Ken Bradbury Foundation supporting students involved in the arts in west central Illinois.
My Name is Huber;
A Tractor’s Story
Jane Aumann and
Cindy Ladage
Oaktree Press, Taylorville
My Name is Huber; A Tractor’s Story by Jane Aumann and Cindy Ladage is the effort of two farm women to preserve the history of farm life for future generations. The pair met a decade ago when both worked for Belt Pulley Magazine; Jane as editor, Cindy as writer. At the time both agreed that there was a lack of printed material about farm life.
So the pair accepted the challenge to put forth those stories. Aumann is also a reading and language arts teacher who grew up on a farm. Ladage, of Pawnee, is married to a grain farmer and is a freelance writer.
My Name is Huber; A Tractor’s Story is a book all ages will enjoy. The story is geared toward readers in second or third grade and 5- or 6-year olds being read to, but adults will enjoy the history and tale. It follows a 1929 tractor by the name of Huber (an actual brand of tractor) who narrates his life from factory to farm to retirement and beyond. He tells stories of his work on a farm during the Depression and World War II, giving insight into that era’s farming practices.
Details of the story were researched in an attempt to make the book historically and factually accurate. The book’s pictures came from central Illinois friends and family. They offered their machinery, tractors, animals and kids to be photographed. The photographs were then fashioned into line art drawings.
Aumann and Ladage have authored two other tractor books, The Christmas Tractor and Tucker’s Surprise. Huber can be purchased for $10 at The Sly Fox bookstore in Virden; Nickorbobs Craft Mall (booth No. 48), Route 104, Auburn; amazon.com or at oaktreebooks.com. Book signings are planned for May in Carlinville at Anderson Mansion during the Historical Society’s Strawberry Festival and in June at the Huber Machinery Museum in Ohio.
The Lands of Forever
Ruth Anne Meredith
Mirror Publishing, Milwaukee, Wis.
Ruth Ann Meredith, aka Ruth Orzechowski of Springfield, admits to being a nerd as a child growing up in a small town north of Springfield. But she knows that the character trait was a blessing. It gave her the time and inner vision to build an entire world.
That world comes alive in her first book, The Lands of Forever. And what a world it is. If you love the Harry Potter or Narnia series, you will be gleefully lost in this land of dinosaurs, wizards, fairies, trolls, dragons, pixies and a variety of mythological creatures. There are diamond castles, voyages and quests, magic and, most important, a fountain of youth. Many may find a breath of fresh air in this novel, compared with others of its kind. It contains fewer evil components.
Serena, the main character, is a 16-year-old girl living in Springfield, Ill., in a Cinderella lifestyle complete with wicked adoptive parent. Her miserable life changes when an ancient dairy is found. As sole heir to the dairy’s author, she is invited to attend an expedition to seek out the mysteries that tie the dairy to strange disappearances at sea and talks of undiscovered land.
Explains the author, “Imagine a world where you could live forever.” That is the place Serena and her crew finds, complete with happy endings. There’s also “mystery, romance, suspense, a little bit of everything,” adds Meredith. Author’s note, map and trivia section also grace the book, so you can get a grasp on the many story names and facts. But Meredith’s writing is engaging and clear enough that those will only be bonus material to further immerse you in The Lands of Forever.
Meredith, now happily pregnant with her first child, confesses she has temporarily stopped promoting the 430-page chapter book. But that won’t stop this fantasy writer, elementary teacher and skillful doer who plodded through baby books for character names and name definitions long before she even dreamed of starting a family. She has accomplished what most 25-year-olds do not even think of. And it doesn’t stop there. Meredith has seven other books with titles and premises already plotted in the series titled The Chronicles of Forever.
The Land of Forever is available for $15.99 at online bookstores, including for Kindle and Nook, and by request from any bookstore or the author.
Contact Anita Stienstra at astienstra@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Capital City Parent April 2013.
