“John And Annie Bidwell: The Long And The Short Of It”

Chico writer Nancy Leek and Paradise artist Steve Ferchaud have combined their talents to create a picture book telling the story of Chico’s founding couple. “John And Annie Bidwell: The Long And The Short Of It” ($16.95 in paperback from Goldfields Books, goldfieldsbooks.com) is for kids grades K-4.

It’s available at Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park, Made In Chico, and The Bookstore. (Leek also authored the acclaimed biography for young readers, “John Bidwell: The Adventurous Life Of A California Pioneer.”)

She writes in the new book that “John Bidwell was a tall man. In a time when the average man stood 5 feet 7 inches, he was 6 feet tall. Annie Bidwell measured 4 feet 8 inches. John was not only 16 inches taller than Annie, he was 20 years older. They met when he was 46 and she was 26 years old, and they married two years later.”

Leek adds: “She was a cultured lady from Washington, D.C.; he was a farmer from California. Yet they loved each other deeply. She called her husband ‘General’ and he called her ‘Precious.’ Here is their story.”

The book begins with John joining a wagon train though “none of them knew the way to California, but they got lucky. They met a group of missionaries who had hired a trail guide.” The journey wouldn’t be easy, but Bidwell arrived intact.

Much later, in “1850, John stood by President Fillmore as he signed the bill admitting California to the Union.” In 1865 “he left for Washington, D.C. to serve in the U.S. Congress. In Washington he met his future wife, Miss Annie Kennedy.” She “had strong views on many subjects.” In addition to her temperance work, she “believed that women should have the vote, and so did John.”

Later still, “in 1905 Annie gave Vallombrosa (‘shady valley’) to the city of Chico. It became Bidwell Park.”

Leek’s colorful and captivating story (there’s a full-color illustration from the inimitable Ferchaud on every page) features these words of John Bidwell: “The history of California lies like a map before me. Somewhat confused it may be, but I have seen it all.”    

“The Columbarium”

A new novel by Chico writer Emily Gallo continues the story of one Jedidiah Gibbons, “a tall, thin, muscular African-American. He was pushing fifty but easily looked fifteen years younger.… He was one of those people who turned heads but not because of his physical attractiveness, although he was quite handsome. It was his air of mystery and aloofness that drew them in.”

Jed is in San Francisco, looking for another new start: “This time he was running from the law.” Part of his history is told in “Venice Beach,” published earlier this year, but he was one of many characters. In “The Columbarium” ($12.95 in paperback from CreateSpace; also for Amazon Kindle) the focus is on Jed, a survivor of the Jonestown massacre in Guyana.

A note indicates that “the Columbarium is a real place, a designated landmark at One Lorraine Court in San Francisco…. It was three stories high and built as a rotunda,” with the walls containing thousands of niches holding urns of every variety, some “ornately decorated with items that were obviously meaningful to those who knew the dead person as well as to the ones whose ashes were inside.”

At Glide Memorial Church, an attractive social worker named Monica directs Jed to a job at the columbarium, which had fallen into disrepair. Owned by the Neptune Society, the facility needed a gardener, a craftsman, an artist, someone who cared. That was Jed.

And he is surrounded in the community by outcasts and the forgotten. There is Rose, an eighty-year-old Chinese woman enamored of the baseball Giants; Sam, whose dear wife Sadie is dying and who befriends Jed and teaches him Yiddish; Goldie, sixty-five and very ill, part of a marijuana selling operation, who also loves Broadway musicals. And many more.

As Jed becomes the caretaker of the columbarium he must confront his anger at the Jonestown murders which took away his family, and allow love, all but pushed away, to enter once again. The columbarium is vandalized; that unites his friends, the unlikeliest of characters, to rally around Jed. Gallo tells the story of a good but flawed man whose transformation through the dailyness of life is quiet yet profound.    

“The Daughters Daring”

When his daughters were young, Biggs resident Steve Thompson made up bedtime stories for them, tales of two courageous girls in a world with “an enchanted forest, gnomes, witches, and all kinds of fun.” After serving as a drill sergeant in the Army Reserve and now as a foster care worker, Thompson has begun putting those stories into print.

“The Daughters Daring” ($10.99 in paperback from KECELJ Publishing; also for Amazon Kindle, with more information at daughtersdaring.com) introduces readers to Elizabeth and Emily Daring, daughters of Duke Daring, “the hero of Highcynder,” a kingdom that would soon face grave peril. (Thompson’s own daughters are the cover models; the book also contains chapter illustrations by Paradise’s Steve Ferchaud and, at the end, a descriptive list of characters.)

While Elizabeth practices archery, watched by her older sister Emily, 12, things go awry, just slightly. It was usually Emily, the athletic one with “the explorer’s heart,” who got into trouble. Fortunately, Elizabeth, “sharp-minded and a skilled negotiator,” was “able to melt even her father’s stern heart with her sapphire blue eyes.”

The Sweetberry Festival is coming (how the duke loves sweetberry pie!), but the sweetberries have disappeared. Some blame the gnomes of the Enchanted Forest, so Emily and Elizabeth sneak off to recover the goods.

That’s when the adventure begins, one that will test the determination and courage of the sisters as they encounter goblins, ogres, and a witch with a cunning plan to take over Highcynder. The gnomes are the good guys, as are the Faery Folk, but seemingly no match against the ogre king, “taller even than their father and some of the tallest knights in the kingdom. He was also thick like a burled tree trunk, with skin that looked almost like bark.”

The witch tempts Elizabeth with talk of the evils of freedom in Highcynder. “I would harness their selfish energies to be utilized for the greater good.” The words, perhaps, of every tyrant.

It’s a well-told tale, with plenty of action, suitable for reading aloud to children and for pondering how “the love of one family can make the difference against the greatest of odds.” Readers will eagerly await the next adventure.