The Forest of Lost Kites

"Of all things love is the most potent."

Maria Montessori

I am reading the first longer book of the year to the children right now, during our story time before lunch.  This is a new experience for the younger ones, carrying a tale in their memory from day to day, and each day we talk about what happened the day before.  It's not a chapter book.  I read it slowly, and give the illustrations the attention they deserve, so it takes about two weeks to reach the end.   I want to tell you about it here, because this book is like no other, and it's part of your children's day right now....

Bill Steidel is an artist and a long-time resident of Cannon Beach.  He has a magical little studio on Hemlock Street, and most of the time you can find him sitting at his mini-station in the corner, working on his latest creation.   I have visited with him for years, ever since my own boys were growing up.  He creates vivid, colorful fantasy paintings, and he also paints naturalist images of ocean and birds and trees and mountains.  His son Sam works with him, creates with him, and manages the business.  They are a Cannon Beach institution.  Here is his website:  http://www.steidelsart.com/

The lovely painting of a Chickadee in the rain, called "Spring Nap," which hangs in its special place in our main room,  is a Bill Steidel work.  You may have never noticed it, but now you will.  Every time I visited him through the years, I would buy postcards of his art, but one year I took the leap and purchased this print, when my sons were young teen-agers.

So what  does this have to do with reading a book? Well, Bill Steidel also wrote one unique children's book, "Mallory in the Forest of Lost Kites."  In 2001 it wasn't published yet - he had made it available in a binder, with the printed pages nestled inside sheet protectors.  Every page is hand-written, and every page is filled with his illustrations.    It is a collector's item., I have a signed copy dated 2002.  Since then they have self-published a hardbound edition.

So in all the ensuing years, I have read this book to the children around me, 3 times already here at Chickadee, with this reading being the 4th. In the summer of 2011, I read it to the children, and then in August we did a family beach day in Cannon Beach.  It was a dream come true for me:  We went to visit Bill Steidel in his studio, and he leaned back and chatted with the kids, and talked with them about what he was working on at the time, a 3-dimensional painting.  The photo at the top of this post is from that visit, and it sits framed on the mantlepiece, another piece of Chickadee's story that I always keep out, and that most people don't notice.  Those children you see have all moved on now, except Cara, who is the shortest one there, kind of hidden, and not yet 4 at the time.

The boy who is reaching his arm toward the painting is Konrad.  He was with us the first two years of Chickadee, and I had become true friends with his family. They moved back east last June, and sad I was to see them go.  But before they left, Kathy brought me a good-bye gift - she had gone to Cannon Beach and come back with the big print of the "Forest of Lost Kites" to give to me; it is displayed now in the art room above the book shelf - a gift of friendship and memory, which will last for always.

So we are reading the story of Mallory's adventure now, and your children can tell you about that painting.  If you look very closely you will see Mallory - a humble mouse in a magical forest - a mouse who shows heroism in the face of danger, heroism and wisdom and kindness.  I won't tell you the story, you can borrow and read it yourself some day.  But I will quote the last page for you, to share its spirit:

"Was Mallory remembered?  He surely was.  Whenever the moon was full, instead of striking fear in the hearts of forest creatures, they would marvel at its beauty and whisper softly, 'it's a Mallory night.' Whenever a kite fell from the clouds the young would point and shout, 'Here comes a Mallory.'  And whenever a soft evening breeze wove its way through the tree tops causing them to sway, and the forest floor danced with color, it was called 'A Mallory kind of day.'  Was Mallory remembered?  Oh, yes, he was indeed.  Whenever anything wonderful or exceptional happened in the Forest of Lost Kites you could hear someone exclaim, "now THAT was a Mallory."