BEYOND THE TIDES: CLASSIC TALES OF RICHARD M. HALLET

It may be hard to believe, but there actually was a time when magazines like the “Saturday Evening Post,” “Harper’s,” “Atlantic” and “Collier’s” published hundreds of high-quality short stories — and people loved them.

Those days are long gone, but fortunately Arrowsic editor Frederick Hill brings some of those wonderful short stories back to life with this collection, “Beyond the Tides.” Hill is journalist and author himself, and he wisely introduces readers to 16 stories by Richard M. Hallet (1887-1967), an interesting character who wrote more than 200 short stories for those terrific magazines.

Hill tells how Hallet was raised in Bath, educated at Harvard, and enjoyed a life of high adventure — lawyer, policeman, miner and merchant seaman — that greatly influenced his short fiction. Much of Hallet’s writing focuses on the sea, and his stories reflect romance, mystery, suspense, vivid characters, surprises and smart plot-twists.

These stories range from Hallet’s first published story in 1909 to 1946, and his love of the sea is obvious. “Beyond the Tides” (1913) tells of an old sea captain who cannot bear to see his rotting ship broken up in the scrap yard, so he takes some drastic and final action. “The Anchor” (1919) is a thriller about a sinking ship in World War I, and the mate’s hatred of the captain nearly condemns the entire crew.

Other stories tell of jealousy, murder, mutiny, shipbuilding and romances both sad and happy. The most clever tells how Andrew Jackson saves a man’s life by challenging a bully to a peculiar duel with a surprising outcome. Learn what a slop chest really is, and about what makes “a perilous woman.” Hallet’s stories reveal “his lifelong fascination with the frequent ambiguity between known facts and the truth.”  We need more writers like Richard Hallet.

THE NATURAL GENIUS OF ANTS by Betty Culley; Crown Books, 2022; 229 pages, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-593-17577-4.

As hoped, central Maine author Betty Culley has done it again — created a delightfully entertaining and educational novel for middle-grade readers.

Her first book for middle-grade readers was 2021’s critically acclaimed “Down to Earth.” And this second novel is even better, more focused with humor, tenderness and careful sentiment set amidst death, grief, guilt and life’s daily challenges of figuring things out.  That’s a lot to take on for young readers, but Culley pulls it off beautifully.

Harvard is a 10-year-old boy, son of a New York doctor, a pediatrician dealing badly with guilt and remorse over the death of an infant in his care. To escape attention, the father brings Harvard and his younger brother to Kettle Hole, Maine, the small town where the father grew up.

Living in a peaceful cabin in the woods is idyllic. The boys and their father bond while building an ant farm and enjoying nature. Harvard meets a neighbor girl, 11-year-old Neveah (heaven spelled backwards), and they become fast friends. Her mother died recently and Neveah is grieving, too, just like Harvard’s father. Harvard tries to help both people, but his mother’s advice rings true: You can’t fix everything, sometimes people have to fix themselves.

The ant-farm project is therapeutic and educational for everyone (combining science and biology into this charming story), and people begin to focus on love, friendship and care for each other. Even Neveah’s father, weighed down by medical bills, finds an unexpected treasure in his “Don’t Cut ‘Em” maple trees.

This story may seem grim with discussions of death, grief and guilt, but those are lessons of hope and love, and the ability to overcome sadness and loss. Learn if ants really sleep, and how Neveah finds a friend who can read her mind.