The new illustrated book “Sailing with Angels: A Poetic Tale of Grief and Grace” features an image of a sailboat on the cover, with the numbers 627 printed on the sail. The numbers 627 are, of course, the first three digits of all Edgartown phone numbers back in the days of landlines. Seeing this sweet nod to Edgartown on the cover of a book reminds me of driving down a highway and passing a car with an ILUVMV license plate.
The book’s author, Laura Briel Sullivan, is what is known in Vineyard parlance as a “summer kid,” and like many of us who had the good fortune to spend our childhood summers here, the Vineyard captured her imagination in life and in art.
“The Vineyard has always been my true north,” Sullivan explained in a recent email exchange. “It is the community that raised me. Parents, grandparents, neighbors, sailing instructors, and family friends all played a role in shaping who I became.”
She describes her debut book, the first in a trilogy, as a “love letter to that community and to the generations who quietly taught us how to live.” She said, “I wanted to write about the people who shape us, the lessons they leave behind, and the realization that although they leave us physically, they never really leave us.”
“Sailing with Angels,” with delightful illustrations by Aileen Bennett, is a fable, a picture book in verse for both adults and children. It is also not strictly for Vineyard readers. In fact, the Vineyard is never actually mentioned by name.
The first spread in the book shows an image of a girl, Princess Briel (note the author’s full name), floating in the water. Her eyes are closed. She is gently smiling and wearing a tiara.
Sullivan writes: “Once upon a time, on an isle not so far away. /Where ocean tides and sea winds play, /A princess mourned of what had passed /While souls set adrift upon raised masts.”
Each of the characters in the book are either based on actual people or are composites of people Sullivan knew and admired — people who taught her life lessons by the way they lived their lives.
A tinkerer was inspired by longtime Chappaquiddick seasonal resident Bill Brine, who, Sullivan said, “could invent almost anything, and believed every child should have an adventure.” (Brine had many adventures himself. A line in his obituary reads, “In 1968 he saw a land auction sign at the Edgartown town hall. He bought two pieces there: one off South Beach, far out to sea, and a second that was never found.”)
A harbormaster was a nod to Barbara Nevin, whom Sullivan described as “a legendary connector who always reminded us, ‘When they’re passing tarts, take a tart.’”
Another character in the book is a judge, Sullivan’s father, who used to say, “A door is many things, but a jar it is not,” a line which is a pun on a door being left ajar, which Sullivan said “became the inspiration for keeping our memories ajar.”
In Sullivan’s bio, she calls herself “a recovering financial services executive.” I asked what she meant by that, and what brought her to writing. She replied, “I spent more than 30 years helping organizations navigate change. Today I simply write about a different kind of change. Writing has been less about reinventing myself than returning to the storyteller I always wanted to become. Losing my parents reminded me that time is finite, and gave me permission to pursue a dream that had patiently waited its turn.”
Another new illustrated book that recently came to our attention is an educational activity book and field guide for children, “Island Adventure Book.” Published by the Vineyard Conservation Society, the book integrates information about the Island’s ecosystem with questions posed to readers.
Chapter 1, “Welcome to the Beach,” includes information under the heading “Who we might see at the beach” about herring gulls, sanderlings, piping plovers, mole crabs, and gray seals. Activity pages include information and space to record your findings like notes in a field guide.
Readers will learn, “A great place to find dried seaweed is in the line of debris left by the most recent high tide. This is called a ‘wrack line’ or ‘drift line,’ for all the material that is drifting in the ocean that gets left on the beach when the tide goes back out.”
There are prompts that ask readers to record their findings during their walk. “Was the tide high or low when you visited?” “How could you tell?” “How many high tides are there in one day?”
Samantha Look, executive director of VCS, said in a press release for the book, “The ‘Island Adventure Book’ gives children the tools to observe their surroundings with care, record what they find, and understand why protecting these places matters — for wildlife and for people.”
The book was edited by Look and Zada Clarke, VCS’s director of advocacy and community organizing, and has illustrations by Fiona MacLean and Ariel Ferrel, as well as contributions by numerous well-respected Vineyard conservationists and organizations, including Marianne Jorgenson, Matt Pelikan, Nina Montanile, and the Aquinnah Cultural Center.
Both “Sailing with Angels” and “Island Adventure Book” are available at Bunch of Grapes and Edgartown Books. Please support our local literary ecosystem.
