Vermont Books

This book is in a series of state books. It is informative and has great graphics. Everyhting you ever wanted to know about Vermont.

Naming the original thirteen colonies is not as difficult as naming the twelve apostles, but not as easy as listing the seven dwarves or Santa's reindeer. When you name the thirteen colonies you probably proceed from north to south, beginning with Maine and ending with Georgia. The only problem is that Maine was not one of the original colonies (it was considered part of Massachusetts). The other state that was not a colony is Vermont, which was a disputed area claimed by both New York and New Hampshire. The area was part of the New Hampshire Land Grants on 1749, but in 1770 the king of England rules the land officially belonged to New York, at which point Ethan Allen and the 200 man militia known as the Green Mountain Boys threw out the "Yorkers" and took over the region by force and established a small republic. Eventually Vermont would become the first state to join the original thirteen and the rest is history, and is covered by Jan M. Czech in Chapter Three.

The brief opening chapter of this From Sea to Shining Sea, Second Series volume introduces young readers to the Green Mountain state. Czech asks "What comes to mind when you think of Vermont?" and in addition to the Green Mountain Boys there is Ben and Jerry's Ice-Cream and "leaf peepers." Chapter Two, The Land of Vermont, divides the state into six distinct land regions: the Champlain Valley, the Northeast Kingdom, the Vermont Piedmont, the Vermont Valley, the Taconic Range, and the Green Mountains. The chapter also looks at the Rivers and Lakes, and Climate, thereby covering the basic geography of Vermont. Chapter Three, Vermont Through History, covers the details on how the state went from being a land grant and a republic to a state, covering how major events in American history from the Civil War to the Great Depression and World War II affected its people.

Chapter Four, Governing Vermont, briefly looks at the three branches of government, and devotes most of its time to giving us a tour of the capital city of Montpelier. A map of downtown Montpelier shows you the relative location of major sites, so that you can get from the Vermont State House to Observation Tower in Hubbard Park. The final chapter looks at The People and Places of Vermont, including the jobs in manufacturing, tourism and agriculture that dominate the economy. The final thing Czech does is takes us on a tour of Vermont, so you can get an idea of what there is to visit in each section of the state. This is also the chapter where you get the book's recipe, which is for Sugar on Snow (to wit, maple syrup on clean, fluffy, freshly fallen snow; a Vermont tradition is to take a bite of the sugar on snow and then a bite of a dill pickle...).

Throughout the book you will find tidbits of information in little sidebars devoted to Famous Firsts (first postage stamp used in the U.S. was made in Brattleboro), Who's Who in Vermont? (Perry Merrill, patron saint o the ski industry), and lots of Extra! Extra! Entries (General Stark's victory at the Battle of Bennington was a turning point in the Revolutionary War). When you get to the back of the book you will find a two-page Vermont Almanac, which gives you quick access to basic facts on things like geographic center, number of counties, and state symbols. This is followed by a Timeline that covers Vermont State History on the top and U.S. History on the bottom, a Gallery of Famous Vermonters such as Chester a. Arthur and Norman Rockwell, and a Glossary of terms from "agriculture" to "tyrannical." Finally, Czech provides some web sties, books, and addresses that you can turn to For More Information if you are researching Vermont for school. All things considered the books in the From Sea to Shining Sea series are turning out to be more history books than geography books, which is fine with me, but if you really need something that focuses more on geographical details this might not be your first choice as a reference book.

Vermont is more than cheese, maple syrup and ski slopes. It is filled with enormous history and rich New England culture. This book will explain all that to you and your students, if you're a teacher.

The "Portrait of America" series is a wonderful introduction for pre-teens to the 50 states and to the places and events that shaped the history of the United States. This "Vermont" installment is particularly good. The book is broken down into sections like "History", "Culture", "Economy" etc., and each section is thoughtfully written and edited. The "History" section is especially good and is very inclusive, and details many of the Revolutionary War events.

This book, as well as the entire "Portrait of America" series, will prove to be a valuable teaching tool to all primary school educators.

Ellen Ecker Ogden's The Vermont Cheese Book is, quite simply, a tribute to and celebration of the farmstead and artisanal cheeses produced throughout the state of Vermont. If you want to explore those cheeses it can guide you through them either by product (in case you want to purchase them elsewhere) or by farm (in case you want to visit some of these delicious places). But best of all it gives life to what could have been a dry guidebook, detailing the people, history and practices behind each farmstead.

The whole of the book went above and beyond its mission. It's certainly intended as a guide to Vermont's cheeses, not some sort of basic primer on cheesemaking in general, and it doesn't pretend to act as the latter. Yet in lovingly detailing how each cheesemaker achieves his or her desired results, the book does indeed impart a surprising amount of information regarding cheeses in general. I went to the store this weekend armed with and determined to make use of a new body of knowledge, and have been reaping the delicious benefits ever since--I may not have been able to access these Vermont cheeses here in Maryland, but I still learned enough to be able to choose other cheeses that have blown me away with their quality. It's enough to make me wish I still lived in Vermont or New Hampshire and could find some of these cheeses in my local store, and I expect I may have to look into ordering one or two from the farms' websites!

Other than some slightly confusing editing snafus this was a splendid book, so consider my rating 4.5 stars.

This is a wicked awesome cookbook! I bought this many years ago & have used it regularly ever since. The recipes are mainly for dishes that are local favorites. Some of the recipe instructions are amusing & all are credited to the Vermont cook who submitted it. Also included are some local poetry & history.

Gorgeous large format photography by Ron Thomas. Contains many beautiful photographs of the Vermont countryside, mostly in autumn colors, and spring bloom. Thomas used an 8x10 camera for much of the work. This book was published by Westcliff (founded by John Fielder) and was one of the nicest "state" themed books published by them, it's a shame it's no longer in print.

My wife and I just returned from a Fall Foliage vacation in Ver mont. On a coffee table at a Bed and Breakfast we stayed at, we found a copy of this book. It is the stories of variouss women who own and do the back breaking work of farming. Some have lived on a farm all their lives, others have left jobs in the cities to take on the rigours of farming. These women are not wimps. They are hard working, self-reliant, single minded and full of passion for the farms they work....endless work.

The author's style is both interesting and comelling. This is a non-fiction page turner. It is the most inspiring book I have read in years.

As a Vermont native I may be somewhat biased about my home state. However, should you obtain a copy of Vermont for Every Season you will understand the basis of my bias. Vermont for Every Season is reasonably accurate in its depiction of what a visiter to Vermont could expect to see throughout the course of the year. It depicts people living in a state which hasn't yet been developed to the point of being nothing more than a paved-over artificial human habitat. It reflects living life at a somewhat slower pace where the natural environment dictates the speed of life, not man. I strongly recommend this book. As you leaf through the pages you can almost feel the cold on a ski slope, smell the maple sap being boiled into maple syrup in the early spring, view cows in a peaceful pastoral setting in summer, or have your senses pleasantly assaulted by the colors of autumn. It's a super coffee table picture book. The photography is of the highest quality. Take this advice from an expatriot Vermonter - buy the book... it's worth the wait.

This is not a wordy book, its a series of wonderful black and white photographs and some text to tell a series of short stories/ or "Vermont'isms". Like many Vermonter's speach some would call the text "terse". But I would call it "rich". Rich in nuance, and meaning, but few in word count.

It's a book that gets to the heart of what it means to be a Vermont'er. Folks from Maine, New Hampshire and New York will appreciate it too.

The Vermont Life Guide to Fall Foliage: The Leaves and Landscape of a Northern Autumn is a guide for nature lovers to getting the most out of experiencing autumn in Vermont. Written for casual travelers and amateur naturalists alike, The Vermont Life Guide to Fall Foliage includes statewide walking, driving and bicycling tours; maps of tour routes; a handful of color photographs of natural communities and species; extensive black-and-white illustrations to facilitate tree and shrub identification; a list of extensive references and resources for further reading; and more. From an overview of the turn of the seasons in Vermont, to a tree-by-tree list of the most commonly found species, to discussions of the advantages and disadvantages of each walking tour available, The Vermont Life Guide to Fall Foliage solidly lives up to its title.