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Reproducible Q&A categories offer an excellent way to testwhat kids know about Vermont - and teach them more!Covers curriculumsubjects + the other types of information asked on student tests,including Vermont people, places, misc. facts, history, and a specialemphasis on Vermont government.Twenty-six categories start with thebasics and work up to harder questions.Includes reproducible scorecard,quiz bowl tips, and bibliography.Free teacher's guide gives specificsuggestions and instructions on how to get max educational value fromthis book.Many schools use this book as part of their Quiz Bowlcompetition preparations.Don't let them beat you to the punch! ... Read more

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"Set aside yourBella Tuscanys andYear in Provences for a different kind of travel book.Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa puts a walking stick in your hand andMarsh's Man and Naturein your knapsack, exploring how Italians have managed their natural and cultural heritage in ways that sustain both. John Elder's poetic meditations on land and life demonstrate that only by searching beyond our familiar boundaries can we discover better ways of living back at home." -- Marcus Hall, author ofEarth Repair: A Transatlantic History of Environmental Restoration

"This collaboration -- between George Perkins Marsh and John Elder, between Vermont and Italy, between maple and olive -- is one of the smartest, soundest, deepest books about the relationship between people and nature that I've ever read. It will be a classic." -- Bill McKibben, author ofThe End of Nature

"Elder's impassioned pilgrimage shows us how to delight in messy wilderness, to secure a curative habitation of the world, and, with Marsh, to lend ecological nous to our gravest task: knowing ourselves and respecting one another. Let the maple seeds and olive stones of Elder's visionary harvest restore to us a reflective and redemptory future." -- from the foreword by David Lowenthal

The pivotal figure inPilgrimage to Vallombrosa is the nineteenth-century diplomat and writer George Perkins Marsh, generally regarded as America's first environmentalist. Like Elder, Marsh was a Vermonter, and his diplomatic career took him for some years to Italy, where, witnessing the ecological devastation wrought upon the landscape by runaway deforestation and the plundering of other natural resources, he was moved to produce his famous manifesto,Man and Nature. Marsh drew parallels between the despoiled Italian environment and his home landscape of Vermont, warning that the latter was vulnerable to ecological woes of a similar magnitude if not carefully maintained and protected. In short, his was a prescient voice for stewardship.

Elder follows in Marsh's footsteps along a trajectory running from Vermont to Italy, and at length fetches up at the managed forest of Vallombrosa. Punctuated throughout with learned and genial considerations of the poetry of Wordsworth, Basho, Dante, and Frost, Elder's narrative takes up issues of sustainability as practiced locally, reports on family doings, and returns finally -- as did Marsh's -- to Vermont, where he measures traditional stewardship values against more aggressive conservation-oriented measures such as the expansion of wilderness areas.

John Elder, Professor of English and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, is the author ofReading the Mountains of Home and The Frog Run.

Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism

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Surveys the history, geography, geology, climate, and plant and animal life of Vermont. ... Read more

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In the words of a young Abenaki girl, Malian's Song tells the true story of the deliberate English attack by British Major Robert Rogers on the St. Francis Abenaki community near Montreal in 1759.Jeanne Brink, a descendant of Malian living in Vermont, told the little-known Abenaki version of the brutal attack--which stands in direct contrast to Rogers' surviving journal records--to the Vermont Folklife Center.The only picture book to present this key piece of North American history from the Native American perspective,Malian's Song underscores the Abenaki people's strength and fortitude in the face of unspeakable loss. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

What about the Abenaki raids on settlers? Hmmm?
This book is muddled in its story telling.But what I want to know is when the sequel will be written from the viewpoint of a settler child whose parents were murdered and scalped by Abenaki, and who was taken captive by them?And let's not forget the fate of the many brave Rangers on their return trip to Fort Number 4.

not age appropriate
I was thinking this was a good children's book because other books from the same VT folk-life were great.However, this includes a lot of native-american words without a pronunciation guide and deals with what I believe to be a mature subject (the attack and destruction of a native village by white (non-native) forces).The treatment of the subject matter was not appropriate for my 3rd grader...but the pictures and story-line are such that older children just would not be interested in this book.too bad. I think they could have picked better subject matter for a VT folklife book on native american/Abenaki heritage.

Hmmmm...
The pictures in this book were fantastic, but the writing was dull and confusing.I'm not certain kids would be terribly into this book.There were some Abenaki terms that were not explained terribly well and a lot of kids would find this confusing.

It's too bad, because this is some good oral history and it is a rare look at the Native side of the Saint Francis raid, but really the book doesn't talk about the raid aside from saying that it was happening.Not a lot of detail for kids, and not as good as it could have been.

Highly recommended.
A Vermont Folklife Center Book written by Marge Bruchac and illustrated by William Maughan, Malians Song is far more than a children's picturebook - it preserves a piece of American and Native American history, as passed down through the oral storytelling traditions of the Abenaki Indians. Set near Montreal in the mid-18th century, as Major Robert Rogers prepares a murderous raid on the St. Frances Abenaki community, Malian's Song follows the experiences of a young girl whose life is about to be abruptly transformed through the impending violence. She escapes, along with many others, yet leaves behind friends and family, and copes with the drastic changes in her life by creating and singing the Loneliness Song. Except for a few minor details, Malian's Song is almost entirely based directly upon research and oral histories of Major Rogers' infamous massacre and the resulting fallout. Highly recommended. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles!Caledonia County is a county located in the U.S.state of Vermont. As of 2000, the population was29,702. Its shire town is St. Johnsbury. The countywas given the Latin name for Scotland, in honor ofthe many settlers who claimed ancestry there. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Bennington is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. It is one of two shire towns (county seats) of the county, the other being Manchester. The population was 15,737 at the 2000 census. By population, Bennington is the largest town in southern Vermont, the third-largest town in Vermont (after Essex and Colchester), and the sixth-largest municipality in the state (after Burlington, Essex, Rutland, Colchester, and South Burlington). Bennington is home to the Bennington Battle Monument, which is the tallest structure in the state of Vermont. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Woodbury is a town in Washington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 809 at the 2000 census.According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 39.1 square miles (101.3 km2), of which, 37.8 square miles (97.8 km2) of it is land and 1.3 square miles (3.4 km2) of it (3.40%) is water. Woodbury lays claim to having the greatest number of lakes and ponds of any town in the state. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Springfield is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 9,078 at the 2000 census. One of the New Hampshire grants, the township was chartered on August 20, 1761 by Governor Benning Wentworth and awarded to Gideon Lyman and 61 others. Although Springfield's alluvial flats made it among the best agricultural towns in the state, the Black River falls, which drop 110 feet (33.5 m) in 1/8th of a mile (201 m), helped it develop into a mill town. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Manchester is a town in, and one of two shire towns(county seats) of, Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 4,180 at the 2000 census. Manchester has become a tourist destination, especially for those from New York and Connecticut, offering visitors factory outlet stores of national chain retailers such as Brooks Brothers and Ralph Lauren, as well as many locally owned businesses. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rutland is a city in and the shire town of Rutland County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 17,292. Rutland is located approximately 65 miles north of Massachusetts and 20 miles east of New York state. Rutland is the second largest city in Vermont. It is completely surrounded by the town of Rutland, which is a separate municipality. The downtown area of the city is listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Walden is a town in Caledonia County, Vermont, United States. The population was 782 at the 2000 census. The community has no ZIP code of its own; mail is routed through the West Danville post office.According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 39.0 square miles (101.1 km2), of which, 38.7 square miles (100.3 km2) of it is land and 0.3 square miles (0.8 km2) of it (0.74%) is water.As of the census of 2000, there were 782 people, 301 households, and 219 families residing in the town. The population density was 20.2 people per square mile (7.8/km2). There were 499 housing units at an average density of 12.9/sq mi (5.0/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 98.21% White, 0.51% African American, 0.13% Native American, 0.13% from other races, and 1.02% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.26% of the population. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The term Vermont Republic has been used by 20th and 21st century writers to describe the period of the U.S. state of Vermont from July 1777, when delegates met and declared independence from jurisdictions and land claims of British colonies in New Hampshire and New York, until its admission to the United States in 1791 as the fourteenth state. The Vermont Republic assumed many of the functions of a nation, including issuing currency called Vermont coppers from a mint operated by Reuben Harmon in East Rupert (1785?1788), and operating a postal system. While the Vermont coppers bore the legend "Vermontis. Res. Publica" (Latin for Republic of Vermont), the state's constitution and other official documents used the term "State of Vermont". ... Read more