Ruth Moore

The Sea Flower centers on two down-and-out orphans, a persnickety cat, an eccentric fisherman, and the hurricane that brings them together. Marney Lessard and Liz Bigelow separately fled from trouble only to find themselves adrift on the same luxury houseboat. When they run aground on a nearly deserted Maine island, Arvid Small comes to their rescue. Stout and friendly, the island's one seasonal resident attempts to change their fortunes with the help of some friends who are as genuine as the coastal Maine folk Ruth Moore knew herself.

Originally published in 1960, The Walk Down Main Street explores what happens when a river town in Maine goes mad over its school basketball team. Ruth Moore covers basketball thrills, coming of age, and the reality of small town inhabitants along with her usual razor-sharp wit and honest depictions of daily life. Readers will be able to recognize their own neighbors, coaches, parents, and friends in this tale.

Bestselling author Ruth Moore (1903-1989) not only wrote some of Maine's greatest novels, but was also a talented poet who published three books of poetry and wrote ballads that have become an ingrained part of pop culture along the coast. Her "The Night Charlie Tended Weir" is frequently performed in theaters and at clambakes. Folksinger Gordon Bok recorded an album based on her ballads. Cold as a Dog and Other Stories is a collection of work from a career that stretches for decades and serves to highlight and showcase the remarkable breadth of her writing talent.

Three generations after Chin Island was inhabited by a bustling community of laborers, only a few families remain. A feud begins on Christmas Day, troubling the remaining inhabitants as they gossip and fan the flames of conflict. Two warring factions collide as the kindly Elbridge Gilman attempts to stop them along with his quick-tempered partner, Liseo MacGimsey. Readers will enjoy Ruth Moore's excellent descriptions of gales, dashing waves, and New England cooking. Speak to the Winds, originally published in 1956, remains a classic that draws glowing reviews from its readers.

Nearly two decades after her debut novel, Ruth Moore writes a saltier tale of Downeast life in Second Growth (1962). Rife with violent deaths, natural disasters, and even attempted blackmail, the town of Hillville has seen better days. Even the land is exhausted and has given what it can. Residents can no longer fish, farm, or manufacture to earn a good living, so they pick up seasonal work and otherwise rely on government support. When an illegitimate child is born and subsequently lost, the local doctor does what he thinks is best, igniting a series of events that engulfs the entire town, from wild-child Beck Overholt to eighty-two-year-old Clemintina Wilkinson, over the course of six months. Moore, a master of detail, weaves an intricate plot that reveals a craggy underbelly of small-town humanity that rivals Maine's rocky coast.

Spoonhandle, Ruth Moore's second novel, spent 14 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List and was made into the movie Deep Waters. Spoonhandle is about Maine, brilliantly authentic, but the story told is universal, as old as time as it deals with the struggle between love and meanness of spirit, between human dignity and greed.

The Weir, written in 1943, takes place on a small island fishing village in the years before World War II, set against a backdrop of handwork and struggle. Ruth Moore, one of the great regional novelists of the twentieth century, brilliantly and authentically captures not only the specific characteristics of coastal Maine, but chronicles universal human drama as the two primary families feud, gossip, and struggle all while being battered by the relentless tides of change sweeping over their community and their entire way of life. This reissue of Ruth Moore's debut novel includes a new introduction.

Nominated for ten UK book awards, Theresa Breslin's hit novel tells of how two young boys - one Rangers fan, one Celtic fan - are drawn into a secret pact to help a young asylum seeker in a city divided by prejudice. Now adapted for the stage by Martin Travers, the play has already been produced to great acclaim at Glasgow's Citizens Theatre. Graham and Joe just want to play football and be selected for the new city team, but a violent attack on Kyoul, an asylum seeker, changes everything when they find themselves drawn into a secret pact to help the victim and his girlfriend Leanne. Set in Glasgow at the time of the Orange Order walks, Divided City is a gripping tale about two boys and how they must find their own way forward in a world divided by difference. This educational edition has been prepared by national Drama in Secondary English experts Ruth Moore and Paul Bunyan. Published in Methuen Drama's Critical Scripts series the book:- meets the curriculum requirements for English at KS3, GCSE and Scottish CfE.- features detailed, structured schemes of work utilising drama approaches to improve literary and language analysis - places pupils' understanding of the learning process at the heart of the activities - will help pupils to boost English GCSE success and develop high-level skills at KS3 - will save teachers considerable time devising their own resources.