"When Little Girls Dream"

As Women's History Month comes to a close, it's fitting to turn our attention from the past to the future. In a pandemic age, with the world turned upside down, when dystopian novels now seem prescient, what's to become of the little ones? Two Chico-area authors have the answer: There's plenty of room for dreams. Big ones.

"When Little Girls Dream" ($14.95 in hardcover from Mascot Books), by Carol Huston and Pamela Medina Pittman, is, as Huston noted in email correspondence, "based on the premise that little girls with dreams become women with vision. In this age where the empowerment of women is recognized as a critical ongoing goal, the book provides a powerful message for little girls that they can be whatever they want to be."

Designed for children ages three through six, the whimsical full-color illustrations by Ingrid Lefebvre bring the words to life. "When little girls dream ... Baby mice wear hula hoops" (and, in the book, indeed they do). "When little girls dream ... Bananas wear pajamas." "When little girls dream ... Snowflakes fall in all the colors of the rainbow." And my favorite: "When little girls dream ... Broccoli tastes like cotton candy and melts in your mouth."

Other dreams go deeper. "When little girls dream ... Broken hearts can be glued back together." "When little girls dream ... Best friends last forever." Best of all, "When little girls dream ... Anything is possible." The page is populated with drawings of a fire fighter, astronaut, chef, doctor, scientist. Anything is possible.

Pittman, says an author's note, "lives in Northern California with her husband and two dogs." Huston "enjoys spending time with her three young grandchildren who inspired her to write this book." 

Huston has taught nursing at Chico State University since 1982, was named the Outstanding Professor for Chico State in 2008-2009, inducted into the university's Retired Faculty Hall of Fame in 2015, and has served on the Enloe Board of Trustees since 2012.

The book will evoke giggles in the younger set, and maybe some wistfulness among much older book columnists. So many of our dreams have turned to nightmares, but here is hope, giggles and all.

"The Trail To Tlaxiaco"

Looking for escapist reading? A local author transports readers to Mexico just after World War II and introduces a man and his wife from Hunan Province in China who emigrate there to escape the Communist revolution. The novel is called "The Trail To Tlaxiaco" ("Tlah HEE ah Ko"), self-published for Amazon Kindle, by Michael Shaw Findlay.

When Findlay, my Butte College colleague, retired from teaching anthropology he decided to write a fictional account based what his father told him about being a grad student in Mexico in the late 1950s. 

Mike's father and his chums visited "Tlaxiaco, way up in the mountains. ... Several times we went to this Chinese restaurant ... where the woman who owned it ... told us that her husband, the Chinese chef, had killed his first wife down in Veracruz."

Findlay himself, having done extensive research in Mexico, decided to fill in the gaps. Who might this mysterious chef be? The result is a riches-to-rags-to-riches story of Cheng Li, driven by his goal of opening a Chinese restaurant in Mexico but whose ambition is thwarted at every step, often by his inner "dragons." In the midst of an argument one day he throws a wok at his wife and kills her.

Cheng Li flees. He's taken in by a poor family, abused in a labor camp, sucked into serving corrupt officials, befriended by another family. Can he escape his past and realize his dream?

Findlay, who asked for my help in formatting the manuscript and uploading it to Amazon, celebrates the cultural nuances of Mexico and the Mixtec (MEESH tehk), "the ethnic group dominating the western highlands of Oaxaca" (WAH HA kah).

And the glorious food Cheng Li prepares. He "sprinkled scallions and toasted sesame seeds over the top of the pork dish before serving it alongside dumplings in hot spiced chicken broth. ... The vegetable dish had a lemon and garlic sauce that acted to pull all of the carefully integrated flavors together."

Can we pull our lives together? As Findlay writes in an author's note, "we must be diligent in maintaining our kindness to one another and try in earnest to keep our dragons in check."

"The Last Resort"

For years, Chico novelist Emily Gallo (emilygallo.com) has been chronicling the lives of an ever-widening circle of misfits. Sipping "endless cups of Earl Grey tea" at the Tin Roof Café, Gallo writes with non-judgmental simplicity as her characters try to make their way in the world.

"The Last Resort" ($12.95 in paperback, self-published; also for Amazon Kindle) is the sixth in the series. The title refers to a pot farm near Garberville "in the lush Emerald Triangle" owned by guitarist Dutch Bogart, who moved there in the early seventies. 

"Local musicians who went on to become famous themselves started playing his songs and his course was set. His guitar style was southern blues, but his songwriting fell neatly into the more lucrative rock and roll category."

Now, "disillusioned and drained by the bright lights and groupie mentality, he decided he had enough money and recognition" and so he came to the farm. Others would come as well, each with a story. 

The harvest over, the two "trimmigrants" from Quebec are preparing to move on. The aging Homer, whose Parkinson's is mitigated by iPod music and vaping "Kobain Kush," a marijuana type "high in THC," remains on the farm. Soon Juniper arrives with a young woman named Scarlett, Juniper's "younger foster sister" who "ended up entangled in a sex ring after I was released from the system."

Then Buster Fingerpickin' McCracken shows up, the blues guitarist still sprightly. Luther, "a tall, handsome, lanky African-American in his late thirties," who spent twenty years in San Quentin before being freed by the Innocence Project, finds his way to the farm as well. As do Leo and Tasha, he a union organizer infatuated with Tasha, she a Vegas card dealer and call girl.

As Dutch makes plans for a music festival (featuring Bonnie Raitt, Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite), fire sweeps through the area, but the farm survives. So do most of the friendships in this motley crew as they find the "last resort" is the start of something new.

An interview with Gallo is scheduled for Nancy's Bookshelf with Nancy Wiegman on Wednesday, March 18 at 10:00 a.m. on North State Public Radio, mynspr.org (KCHO 91.7 FM).

"The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants"

"I was determined," writes Jennifer Jewell in the introduction to an extraordinary series of biographies, "to focus on the diverse ways horticulture intersects with our everyday world and on women whose work has enriched and expanded these intersections in the last twenty-five years."

Jewell is the writer and host of the syndicated public radio program and podcast "Cultivating Place: Conversations On Natural History & The Human Impulse To Garden" (cultivatingplace.com), a co-production of mynspr.org, North State Public Radio in Chico, airing Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. and Sundays at 9:00 a.m.. 

"The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants" ($35 in hardcover from Timber Press; also for Amazon Kindle) takes readers into the lives of women "from the United States, England, Ireland, Wales, Canada, Australia, India, and Japan. They range beautifully across race, ethnicity, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds, sexual orientation, and age."

Her book is a strikingly beautiful portrayal of women "doing current and innovative work" in such areas as "botany, environmental science, ... floriculture, agriculture, social justice, ... seed science, gardening, garden writing and garden photography, ... research, and public policy...." 

The focus is on the women themselves, though a list of resources at the end directs readers to related websites for additional information, tips, and ideas. Arranged alphabetically, each biography includes a list of other women who have influenced that person's life. 

Smiles abound in the full-color photographs, inviting readers to meet such women as Janet Sluis, the curator of the Sunset Western Garden Collection (a "plant geek at heart" passionate about finding ecologically appropriate plants for home gardeners) and Kate Frey, a garden designer now based in Walla Walla, Washington (whose first job was with the Boonville Hotel and whose bee-friendly gardens make people say "Happy!").

Her gardens, Frey says, "support all manner of life, and being in a garden filled with life changes us forever." Jewell's book as well is filled with exuberant life--and lives.

An interview with Jewell is scheduled for Nancy's Bookshelf with Nancy Wiegman on Wednesday, March 11 at 10:00 a.m. on North State Public Radio, mynspr.org (KCHO 91.7 FM).

"Negotiating Science And Religion In America: Past, Present, And Future"

In the popular American imagination, Charles Darwin's "On The Origin Of Species" (1859) set up a rivalry--or even outright warfare--between science and religion that continues to this day. After all, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins penned "The God Delusion," and the late Christian law professor Phillip E. Johnson put "Darwin On Trial."

Yet, according to Greg Cootsona, Lecturer in Comparative Religion and Humanities at Chico State University, that story distorts the complicated relationship of science and religion in U.S. history and in fact masks a trend among "emerging adults" (those 18-30 years old) that may fundamentally change that relationship.

Cootsona's "Negotiating Science And Religion In America: Past, Present, And Future" ($44.95 in paperback from Routledge; also for Amazon Kindle), is intellectual history at its finest, taking readers through the changing understanding of "science" and "religion" as the U.S. has become increasingly pluralist.

In 1966 physicist Ian Barbour, who graduated from Yale Divinity School, proposed four ways science and religion meet each other. Yes, there has been conflict between the two, but also they've been seen as independent knowledge systems. At times they have been in dialogue with each other. And there is also the possibility of "integration."

Yet Cootsona writes that such a model no longer fits what is happening among emerging adults. Religion has morphed into "spirituality" (many who report no religious affiliation--the "nones"--consider themselves spiritual) and emerging adults are creating "interactive networks" through technology that draw beliefs from many traditions in an increasingly pluralist context. Religion is not one thing, and neither is science. There is "negotiation" on the personal level.

This collaboration shows itself in many of the vexing issues young adults must deal with as they become tomorrow's leaders. Genetic manipulation ushers in the "specter of eugenics"; there is climate change, sexuality, AI, transhumanism, the nature of race. 

In these challenges Cootsona, in his ground-breaking and optimistic work, discerns a "unique American vitality" found in the interplay of the sciences and religions.

An interview with Cootsona is scheduled for Nancy's Bookshelf with Nancy Wiegman on Wednesday, March 4 at 10:00 a.m. on North State Public Radio, mynspr.org (KCHO 91.7 FM).

"Kill The Bucket List: Start Living Your Dreams"

Novelist T.J. Tao said it: "Only by losing everything, do I gain the Freedom to build a life of uncluttered purpose." Tao is actually the pen name of Michael J. Orr, who writes that the aphorism "was a literal statement based on circumstances I was going through at the time. You see, I wrote that quote on November 11, 2018, three days after the deadliest and more destructive wildfire in California history had destroyed my hometown of Paradise."

He continues: "Ninety-five percent of the homes in Paradise were destroyed, including my own.... My family and I had, quite literally, lost everything: our home, our community, our jobs, our pets, and our belongings. ... That is where the Freedom came from, the idea that since we had to start over from scratch, where did we want to do it and what did I want to do?"

It led Orr and his family to move to Idaho. Wanting to write, he began publishing a series of novels under the T.J. Tao name (including "Burn Scar," which imagines the Camp Fire taking place on a ridge in Idaho) and, under his own name, a motivational "kick in the pants" called "Kill The Bucket List: Start Living Your Dreams" ($7.99 in paperback from WordsmithMojo Publishing; also for Amazon Kindle).

"Far too many of us, men and women alike," Orr writes, "have become comfortable in our discomfort, instead of using our discomfort to stimulate a change. ... What if you could choose to Kill Your Bucket List and live your dreams, instead of putting them off?" His answer: "YOU CAN!"

The goal is to approach one's dreams with a dose of reality (one may not win the Nobel Prize in Literature but one can write), humility (which "will allow you to suck without throwing in the towel"), and plenty of baby steps: "Start> practice> suck> practice> suck> practice> Aha> practice> suck...less> practice> improve> practice> get better > practice> become competent...."

Too often, he says, "F.E.A.R. becomes our answer: Forget Everything And Run." We need to "re-frame our fears and self-doubt." F.E.A.R. becomes "Face Everything and Rejoice."

Readers may find that's just what they need.

"Secrets Under The Skin"

Chicoans Hope Hill and N.J. Hanson begin their novel with a splash. Seven-year-old Jocelyne (Jocy) Chambers, her two twin brothers, Jacob and Travis, now four, and their babysitter Lisa, journey to the Pacific Bay Aquarium. With her parents away on a business trip, Jocy finds it hard to keep her brothers in line and at the aquarium they sneak onto a catwalk above the shark tank. What could go wrong?

Hearing a shout, Travis turns but his "shoe slipped on the slick, wet metal and he pivoted to the left. His arms flailed in a desperate attempt to grab something, to steady himself, but he only caught empty air. Jacob reached for his brother, but it was too late. Travis fell screaming, and plummeted into the cold water of the shark tank." At feeding time.

The shark grabs Travis; in a moment, Jocelyn "dove headfirst, breaking through the water's surface. She'd closed her eyes before hitting the water, but once beneath the waves she found her vision as clear as crystal. A trail of blood led down to the shark swimming away with her little brother. ... She swam faster than should be possible, her hair streaming behind her like in a wind tunnel." And then she screams as the shark lunges.

"Her voice came out like a high-pitched, powerful shriek. A siren wail that vibrated through the water like a sonic wave. Schools of fish froze, stunned. ... And the shark, the deadly, powerful great white came to a stop."

"Secrets Under The Skin" ($8.99 in paperback from Ink Drop Press; also for Amazon Kindle) is a gripping story of self-discovery. 

Years later, befriended by a school counselor named Mr. Otto, Jocelyn comes to understand that nothing is as it seems. Hill, an author, poet, and former foster child, and Hanson, lover of science fiction and fantasy, have crafted a tale with a cliff-hanger ending that will have readers craving for the next. It can't come soon enough.

The authors will be signing copies of their book at ABC Books, 950 Mangrove Avenue in Chico, on Saturday, February 22 starting at 11:00 a.m. and extending into the afternoon. The public is invited.

"Target: Nimitz"

Gary Carter, an Orland resident and a retired U.S. Navy Captain who served aboard the USS Nimitz, has imagined a taut confrontation between U.S. and Iranian interests in the Strait of Hormuz. His timely historical novel starts in the Spring of 2006 in Tehran as the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Hamid Javad Ghorbani, calls for plans to strike back against the Great Satan. "The primary target of the operation," he says "must be the zealot’s aircraft carrier Nimitz."

The President of the United States, Edward Michael Sheppard, is at first unaware of the plot. That will change. 

"Target: Nimitz" ($17.95 in paperback from BookLocker.com; also for Amazon Kindle) follows Frank Warren, "assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness; Captain, U.S. Navy (ret)," now living with his wife, Mary, in Northern California. That is, until Warren applies for the "assistant to the assistant" job at the Pentagon. Then it's off to D.C.

Carter draws on years of experience, and extensive research (the novel has 40 endnotes as well as a list of characters and a glossary of military acronyms), to bring the reader into the inner workings of the Department of Defense, the White House Situation (Sit) Room, and the Nimitz, now becalmed in international waters in the Persian Gulf with both nuclear reactors offline.

"Like a small town, an aircraft carrier has its own rhythm and pulse; it has unique sounds, smells, and routines, such as the shrill of the bos’n’s pipe marking certain events throughout the day. ... Sailors adjust to the gentle rolls and pitches that the sea induces on its 100,000-ton visitor."

Warren is worried about the Nimitz, "the mighty fist of American power." He learns that Iranian boats are "huddling" in several groups surrounding the carrier. How should the U.S. respond? Warren has an idea, an audacious plan involving a B-52--and who would have guessed, for a person in his lowly position, that he would be explaining it to the President in the Sit Room?

The writing will gladden the heart of Tom Clancy or Stephen Coonts fans, replete as it is with military detail and the tense question: What will happen next in the "fog of war"?

"Tangled Up With The Dead: An Historical Ghost Story"

"Between the years of 1854 and 1929," writes Chico novelist Cathy Chase, "from the large cities in the Eastern part of the United States, orphaned or abandoned children were loaded onto trains in large groups and sent West to be given to families. As many as 250,000 children were relocated." From that starting point, Chase spins the story of one of the orphans, fifteen-year-old Hannah Banks, who is taken to the tiny town of Sweetser, Indiana to begin life anew. 

But all is not right. The story's narrator, Hannah herself, reports "the old familiar feeling of hot tingling darts shooting down my arms and into my fingers." What Hannah will encounter threatens her very life; it is a force from the depths of supernatural horror.

But to help the reader make sense of events, Jane, Hannah's mother, takes over the story. It is 1884, sixteen years before Hannah's arrival in Sweetser. Jane remembers her romance with Jonathan Banks a year before, who took her through the church graveyard where she spotted the marker of the Slaughter family who had lived in a cabin on the outskirts of town. 

Daniel, the father, came home roaring drunk one night and burned the place down, killing them all, including his wife, Martha, and young daughter, Emily. Another family, the Spectors, eventually built on top of the remains. Jane is Jane Spector, and she's shaken by this revelation, especially because she's had a "secret friend who's visited me in my room since childhood"--named Daniel. "Spector"; "Slaughter": do not take these names for granted.

Jonathan and Jane fall in love, but Jane's invisible friend, Daniel, is not pleased. Not pleased at all. As Jane tells Jonathan, "I think the Daniel who resides in this house, who wants to keep me, is the same Daniel who killed his wife and child. He is an evil demon." Then comes the voice of Daniel in Jane's head: "I order you to call off your wedding."

Daniel will stop at nothing to keep Jane for himself. The shocking result forms the background to Hannah's own supernatural battles that will keep readers turning pages until the last.

"Hey Tree, What Should I Be?"; "Imagine A World"

A new series of picture books aims high, aspiring to guide "children both big and small upon a journey through many of life's timeless questions. We intend for these books to send out ripples of joy, unity, and love, while providing subtle support to the ascension and enlightenment of our human family." 

In their "'I AM' Adventures," Chicoans Josh Shelton (writer) and Sam Pullenza (illustrator) focus on questions kids have about careers and, given that "our planet's in a jam," how they might make a difference.

The introductory book is "Hey Tree, What Should I Be?" ($14 in paperback from White Magic Books, whitemagicbooks.net, and Conscious Dreams Publishing; also for Amazon Kindle). It begins with a child facing quite a task: "I've been given a whopper assignment/ it's a doozy indeed/ I've got to choose what it is/ I'll grow up to BE!" And no dawdling: "... I haven't the time/ to ponder or wallow/ I'm supposed to figure this out/ and share it tomorrow!"

Well, how about becoming a "professional mud puddle splasher"? The child consults his friend the tree as he sees this isn't realistic. Maybe become an author? He realizes that as time goes by he'll change, just like the tree: "Just days ago/ it clearly wanted its leaves// And today it's released them/ to soar in the breeze." So, finally, he will "let my heart be my guide/ when change comes to call." That is the way to happiness.

There's great change coming, the creation of a global consciousness, and that's the topic of "Imagine A World" ($14.99 in paperback; also for Amazon Kindle). "So strap up your light boots/ Unbuckle your heart/ Free your mind.../ It's 'create-with-our-imagination-time'!" Pullenza's vibrant and exuberant pictures reflect the story's imaginative joy.

"Imagine our seas/ Vibrant and free/ No oil or plastic/ Or wasteful debris"; "Imagine a world/ Where we can visit the stars.../ Play tag on the moon/ And hopscotch on Mars." With love and acceptance, the book asserts, "so it will be!"

An art installation, featuring the tree in the story, is on display through January at Ellis Art and Engineering Supplies on Broadway in Chico.

"Guys Like Me: Five Wars, Five Veterans For Peace"

Michael Messner graduated from Chico State University and is now Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California. In his undergraduate days at Chico State he "opposed the American War in Vietnam." His father, a veteran of World War II, had "no patience for the antiwar movement."

It was different for his grandfather, who served in World War I. Back in 1980 "I tried to cut through Gramps's cranky mood by wishing him a happy Veterans Day. Huge mistake. 'Veterans Day!' he barked.... It's not Veterans Day! It's Armistice Day.'" The politicians did this, he said: "'Buncha crooks! They don't fight the wars, ya know. Guys like me fight the wars.'"

Messner, though not himself a veteran, was drawn to those connected with an organization called Veterans for Peace. In a sobering new book he interviews some of the vets who were deeply troubled by what they had participated in and who found some measure of healing from PTSD and various addictions in challenging the Pentagon's version of the history of U.S. warfare.

The result is "Guys Like Me: Five Wars, Five Veterans For Peace" ($24.95 in hardcover from Rutgers University Press; also for Amazon Kindle). Messner (guyslikemebook.com) writes an insightful essay on the roots of peace activism, and the interviews--including a World War II Army veteran and a Navy veteran of the Iraq War--are raw and deeply moving.

Included is Gulf War Army veteran Daniel Craig, pictured on the front cover in Santa Fe, New Mexico, amid crosses, displayed by Veterans for Peace, representing U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Activism and "spiritual healing" for Craig, Messner writes, is a way for him to overcome "his anger over having killed people for what he now sees as lies."

To those who thank these veterans for their service, Ken Mayers, a fellow vet and friend of Craig's, replies: "That was very nice of you. But you should know that the things we did when we were in the military, we did because we were told to. This work that we are doing right now--working for peace--this is our service."

"VanOps: The Lost Power"

When the twins arrived at their father's Napa vineyard, thirty-something Maddy Marshall and Will Argones wondered what was going on. Their sister Bella had been invited as well. Why all the family togetherness among siblings who had been dispersed far and wide?

Suddenly, a gunshot. The twins' father, the target of a Russian sniper, lives only long enough to speak the words that will propel Maddy and Will into Dan Brownian motion to find a mysterious other-worldly weapon.

"VanOps: The Lost Power" ($16.49 in paperback from Black Opal Books; also for Amazon Kindle), by Grass Valley novelist Avanti Centrae (avanticentrae.com), is a page-turner that takes its protagonists from a medieval Spanish castle to a secret underground city in Israel--and beyond.

Centrae's debut novel is the first in a series featuring VanOps, short for "Vanguard Operations," a top-secret CIA group chartered "to keep an eye out for any sort of advanced or obscure technology that threatened the security of the United States." 

Winner of the Genre Grand Prize at the Chanticleer International Book Awards, and a Hollywood Book Festival Honorable Mention, the story is a quest within a quest. 

A thousand years ago Ramiro I, the first King of Spain, founded a dynasty that "contributed to, not only the current Spanish ruling class, but also to the royal families of nearly all the other current European monarchies." Ramiro wielded obelisks of amazing power, said to be passed down from Alexander the Great, and said also to be part of the legacy of his descendants, Ferdinand and Isabella.

Maddy and Will are part of that great lineage. She is a world-class athlete, skilled in aikido; he is an engineer. Together they must find those who guard the ancient weapons, and then solve a series of clues to find the weapons themselves, all the time tailed by Russians who seem to know their every move.

They are joined by Teddy "Bear" Thorenson, an old high school classmate with "an embarrassing one-way crush" on Maddy, whom they just happen to run into, and who turns out to be a covert VanOps agent.

Will it be enough to win? Readers will have a thrilling time finding out.

"The California Camp Fire: Reflections And Remnants"

An extraordinary coffee-table book explores the emotional interior of those who survived the Camp Fire and then looks outward at the terrible beauty wrought by the flames and heat. "Monochromatic portraits" by Chico photographer Ron Schwager are paired with fourteen verbatim accounts of those who escaped. Chico screenwriter and novelist Phil Midling writes in the prologue that the images are "beautiful in their simplicity and starkness yet also convey a rich complexity. ..."

Midling, who also provides the epilogue, writes that the second half of the book features stunning full-color patterns, "many resembling paintings of abstract art. Among the piled rubble and cindered ash, Ron was able to extract the images of devastation; contorted remnants and skeletal configurations of heat-fused plastic, steel, and glass viewed through a kaleidoscope of tertiary-like colors--odd hues of oxidized orange-rust, and red-violet, and turquoise-blue embedded within the bleak and grayish landscape."

"The California Camp Fire: Reflections And Remnants" ($45 in hardcover, self-published, from thecampfirebook.com, with local pickup and mail orders available), designed by Connie Ballou, is a masterpiece that will cause readers to pause and reflect with every turn of the page. 

A few haunting words from the accounts: "And so we had no other choice but to drive directly through the flames. ..." (Paradise High School coach Seth Roberts, 60); "I texted a goodbye message to my boyfriend who had been calling me because I really didn't think we were going to make it out alive" (Feather River Hospital security employee Tameekah Abdullah, 28). "I remember receiving texts from certain retirement homes. ... We just couldn't get the engine to that location. I knew those residents were about to be burned to death at any moment and there was nothing we could do. And we knew a lot of those people personally" (Paradise fire captain Alejandro Saise, 45).

In the color photograph section, Schwager writes that as a photographer, though he is "drawn to the chaos, my presence seems to be unobjectionable. But amongst the hive of debris removal activity I feel I am treading on hallowed ground. I feel I need to record this in some meaningful way." 

He has done so.

"The Trees Of Bidwell Park"

"John Bidwell ... planted a variety of exotic trees," writes Chicoan Roger Lederer. Subsequently many groups worked to maintain Chico's reputation as a "City of Trees." 

During a 1905 celebration thanking Annie Bidwell for the donation of Bidwell Park, she told those assembled that "a sadness has at time oppressed me as the thought has been borne in on me that some day the beautiful, beloved Chico creek would be destroyed by the diverting of its waters and the slaughter of its trees."

For Lederer, stewardship and awareness are keys to the preservation of Annie's legacy. To that end comes "The Trees Of Bidwell Park" ($19.95 in paperback from Stansbury Publishing) with color illustrations by Carol Burr. It's a companion volume to the couple's "The Birds Of Bidwell Park" and is available locally from Made In Chico, Bird In Hand, the Bookstore downtown, ABC Books, and Magnolia Gift And Garden.

The book is dedicated to botanist Wes Dempsey, now retired, who "for over a half century has led trees tours of Chico." Think of this essential volume as a tour in print form of the park's tree variety. 

From trees found only on the university campus (considered by Lederer "the western end of the park"), to many common species found in upper, middle, and lower park areas, the entries are designed "to stimulate your interest in the tall, stately plants around you. ..."

The guidebook lists families of trees in the park, shows various leaf shapes, and provides a glossary and index to the trees. But the glory is in the trees themselves, each given a page showing its leaves and the tree's shape, along with a description, general location in the park, and interesting facts. Though not comprehensive, the listings help readers "see" more clearly what is all around them and too often taken for granted.

There's the Dawn Redwood, once thought extinct, which is found on the university campus. Then take the Pacific Ponderosa Pine, which grows throughout the park. "Some people describe the scent of the bark as turpentine-like while others smell vanilla or butterscotch; some find no smell at all."

Get the book, then marvel at the trees.

"Far From Home: A Story Of Loss, Refuge, And Hope"

Chicago-based children's book editor Sarah Parker Rubio was born in the US but grew up in Costa Rica and Ecuador and is married to a Columbian composer. One day she heard a story about the global refugee crisis, and could hardly imagine what she'd tell their two sons if suddenly the family had to leave for another country. 

Yet she realized that the children and their parents caught in such a crisis were not so different from her own family. She imagined "a little boy who ... surely loved his bed and his toys and his grandparents. ... But the little boy in my imagination had to leave it all behind just because of where and when he had been born."

So she wrote "Far From Home: A Story Of Loss, Refuge, And Hope" ($14.99 in hardcover from Tyndale Kids; also for Amazon Kindle), beautifully and sensitively illustrated by Fátima Anaya.

A young boy, clutching Rabbit, is suddenly awakened one morning by his parents. "We have something to tell you," his father says. "I opened one eye. Mama and Daddy tried to smile. 'I don't think I want to hear what you're going to say,' I said. I was right."

They had to leave home. Now. "'For how long?' I asked. 'A long time,' Mama said. 'Maybe forever.'"

Eventually they arrive at a place where others like themselves are waiting, and a wrinkled old woman tells him a story about another boy long ago who also had to leave his home suddenly. 

"His mama and daddy tried to tell him why, but nothing they said made any sense." But he survived. "He grew up and helped many people. He could heal people when medicine didn't work. He could feed a crowd with one person's food. ... But he never forgot what it was like--the leaving and the waiting and the different."

We realize loss, too, is part of the Christmas story. On the last quiet page Matthew 2:13-14 says it: Jesus' parents must flee with him to Egypt. Yet "no matter what we have lost," Rubio has written elsewhere, "there is Someone who never loses us."

"A Brief History Of The Richardson Family, 1775-1924"

A century-and-a-half ago, a man named Pierce Richardson traveled from Iowa to Chico. He established his family's ranch, encompassing about 5000 acres, north of Chico in a place called Mud Creek; four brothers, two sisters, and other family members moved from Iowa to the ranch or lived in the surrounding area. Eventually the ranch was developed into the Richardson Springs Resort, famous around the world for its healing mineral waters.

But just who were the Richardsons? Thanks to ANCHR, the Association for Northern California Historical Research, we have the answer. "A Brief History Of The Richardson Family, 1775-1924" ($16.95 in paperback from anchr.org, which lists local businesses carrying ANCHR publications) takes its title from material compiled by Nellie Eliza McClard Woodward, one of Pierce's nieces, in 1924.

The editors (Josie Reifschneider-Smith, Ron Womack, Mike Boggs, Michelle Rader, Nancy Leek, and David Brown) have also included extensive excerpts from family letters (1845 through 1906); additional historical photographs not found in the original Woodward manuscript; a brief history of the family in California by Larry Richardson, Pierce's grandson (written in 1960); and an article by Ron Womack about Pierce. 

The book is a compendium rather than a continuous narrative and invites browsing. Pierce is an especially interesting character. In a letter dated May 13, 1868, Pierce, in Chico, sent his brother William, then living in Centerville, Iowa, the following observations: 

"We have commenced cutting hay here," he writes. "Crops are going to be good here this year. ... Politicks is running very high now. I hope that Grant ... will get beat so bad he will be ashamed to own that he ever run for President. ... I am nocking along here at $40.00 per month. I never go to church or to dances or gamble or drink any. So I am about the same, only getting oalder very fast. I am as gray as a rat." (The spelling is Pierce's.)

Though a few pages are devoted to the early history of Richardson Springs (named when the resort was established in 1908), the focus is on how a big, ordinary family made its way in the Chico area so long ago.

"Creative And Connected"

Dr. Joni Samples, former Superintendent of Education for Glenn County and past columnist for this newspaper, asks an important question: "I have become concerned about the huge upsurge of adult opiate use. ... How does living with a parent having some issues, whatever they might be, affect a child’s brain development?" 

Together with Early Childhood Specialist Leigh Shannon the two have published a detailed fourteen-lesson curriculum "specifically for at-risk preschool children." "Creative And Connected" ($19.95 in paperback from Engage Press, creativeandconnectedchildren.com; purchase includes a password for teaching materials access) is designed for preschool facilitators, but its insights can be helpful for anyone caring for children. (A faith-based version is also available.)

Lessons address four domains: Feeling (identifying emotions and responding responsibly); cognition ("how to think first in resolving conflict"); psycho-motor (bodily expression); and what the authors call "mindfulness" ("learning a sense of self and the beauty within, sense of others, sense of beauty in nature, classical music, and sense of love and peace").

Because "some at-risk children ... have difficulty dealing with emotional pain," each lesson emphasizes "building self-confidence and exploring and mastering connectedness" all within an environment of encouragement (which, the authors add, "does not alter consequences"). "When these children begin responding ... the teacher will be quick to say, 'Lisa, you did it! You did it! You didn't hit! You didn't kick! You yelled, "I'm mad!" You are learning!!'"

The authors lay out the purpose of each lesson and offer "brain connections." For example, "Children who are at-risk and lack self-trust are coming from stress and fear much more often than other children. Their amygdala is activated much more often from fear. Improvisation allows them a safe place to be spontaneous and to feel joy."

Three lessons cover "sexual abuse, violence, and addiction" and note that facilitators need permission from parents or guardians before bringing children into the discussion. 

"Some children," the authors write, "have been taught not to trust. Three dysfunctional rules 'taught' in substance-abuse homes are: We don't feel, we don't trust, and we don't talk about real issues." But "through movement, the children's natural language, and through music that reaches his heart, the child begins his/her journey toward self-trust."

"Burnt Offerings"

Paradise illustrator Steve Ferchaud (steveferchaud.com) lost his home, including his studio, in the Camp Fire. But thanks to many "angels" his pen is active again. 

In 2017 and 2018 he had taken up the "INKTOBER" challenge for artists to post a drawing each day in October in response to the word for that day. After the fire he decided to compile all 62 sketches into a book, the proceeds of which would go to helping Camp Fire survivors. His original drawings were destroyed, so he redrew each one and included a short commentary. 

"Burnt Offerings" ($9.95 in paperback, self-published with the help of MC2 Design Group) is available on Amazon and locally at ABC Books in Chico. It also contains a short narrative of Ferchaud's escape, and the aftermath, and nine drawings of "special Paradise landmarks," including the Gold Nugget Museum and the Honey Run Covered Bridge. Be prepared for a rush of feelings.

Though his drawings are whimsical Ferchaud focuses on adult concerns; there are a couple of raised middle fingers, a swear word, and plenty of monsters: greedy televangelists, politicians on the take, war profiteers. Wry humor abounds.

Take October 3, 2018; the word is "roasted." "Thanksgiving Day: We say our thanks, and then eat like there is no tomorrow. Maybe we should just eat, be thankful every day, because the odds are pretty good that there will be a tomorrow, even though it is always uncertain what tomorrow may bring." 

The drawing shows snarky pigs around the dinner table as they pass the serving platter with a plump little man roasted to perfection. Ferchaud adds: "My vegan and vegetarian friends loved this cartoon. Friends that lived in Vegas said it ruined buffets for them for the rest of their lives."

There are sweet moments, too, as Ferchaud responds to "precious." Yes, there's a Gollum-like creature in the drawing. "And speaking of rings, one of the things I found after the fire amongst the ashes was my Grandfather's ring. I found it after I stopped looking for it. Before the fire, I only wore it on special occasions. Now I wear it every day. A reminder that every day is a precious occasion."

"Out Of The Ashes: One Survivor's Journey In The Aftermath Of Two Historic Wild Fires"

On September 6, 2016, the Saddle Fire, six miles southeast of Paradise, burned hundreds of acres. Antoinette Peppler and her husband lost everything but decided to rebuild.

They "moved in & celebrated being home again in 2018. Then the Camp Fire hit. We struggled to leave our home once again after just moving in. We were evacuated for 2 weeks. We came home again on Thanksgiving Day." Fire had spared them this time, but "we lost our town, our community, family & friends."

Peppler, a poet and professional cake decorator, created a blog to "encourage & inspire others"; those entries, reflections on paintings and photographs by friends and family members, have become "Out Of The Ashes: One Survivor's Journey In The Aftermath Of Two Historic Wild Fires" (self-published paperback; send a money order or cashier's check for $25.00, which includes $5 shipping, to Antoinette Peppler, PO Box 1646, Paradise, CA 95967).

The paragraphs Peppler writes never minimize the hurt--she's been there. In "17 Treasures More" she writes: "A treasure box of remnants & charred burnt jewelry. ... Oh my heart... deep down, my soul just ached, as I felt the sorrow drop me to my knees." "Sometimes," she writes, "I’m just so emotionally & mentally exhausted. Like I have been physically running, almost sprinting, in a long-distance race. ..."

The cleanup overwhelms: "The multiple choices that add to our list, are too many decisions to make or to fix. Want to scream but no time, need to cry but no tears, have to work but can’t move, just don’t know what to do!" 

But her faith is strong: "Though we were protected this time from the flames, it has left a scar upon our hearts & souls. We feel it, but this we know, we are alive because God’s grace still abounds. He is our shelter & I am trusting in Him!"

"We can’t change the past, though that’s what we want most, but we can paint today with a vision of hope. A plan to set forth a new life for ourselves, begins with a start to finish the race."

"Fire On The Ridge: A Collection Of Poems"

"I am neither a writer nor a poet," Bill Hartley says. But in the wake of the Camp Fire, which destroyed Joy Lyn's Candies, the business he owned, he became both.

"Writing about the disaster is a release of the sorrow. It is also an acceptance that I am facing a new chapter of life, and it is up to me if I want to be happy or sad. I choose to move on; I choose happiness."

Hartley describes himself as "a chocolatier helping my son and daughter-in-law who now own Joy Lyn's." But he's an author now, too, with "Fire On The Ridge: A Collection Of Poems" ($18.50 in paperback from Gold Dust Press; available at the Gold Nugget/Depot Museum, 5570 Black Olive Drive, Paradise, and Treasures From Paradise, 969 Bille Road, with profits going to the museum.)

Each of the almost four dozen poems features a photograph by Doug Keister, and there are paintings by Pam Hartley (one of which graces the cover). Collected into five chapters, the first two, "The Fire" and "Grief," give way to "Acceptance," "Moving Forward," and "Resilience."

"My world was turned upside down," the poet writes early on. "All I saw was black and gray;/ My friends are scattered all around,/ I'm a lost soul in Paradise." 

In "Paradise Lost," memories are carried away: "As the trucks rumble and crumble the roads,/ They carry remembrances of young and old;/ The towering trees are scorched and the red earth torched black;/ We dream it didn't happen, we want our old life back."

But there's no going back: "The toll of his disaster weighs heavily on me,/ And insurance forms are all I see./ Now I just sit and muse--/ I'm suffering from the paperwork blues."

Yet later, in "Soul of Paradise," "You discover an inner strength you did not know,/ it came from hope that ebbs and flows,/ it's the love of our fellowman that shows." 

Bottom line? "So, believe in Paradise, you can't go wrong;/ The sense of community is vibrant and strong./ Although the road to recovery has many a twist,/ I'll be back in Paradise, the town I miss."