Six Degrees of Separation – From Frommer's New England to Charlotte's Web

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where you end up. This month’s starting point is any travel guide from our bookshelves. I used to work for the publisher of Frommer’s Travel Guides and happened to pull down Frommer’s New England the other day for a friend who was visiting Salem (when you work for a travel publisher, you collect a copy of every book/location you think you might visit or need as a reference in the future).

Salem, Massachusetts is a big tourist attraction in October but it is more pleasant to visit at other times and it is a very walkable downtown area. A powerful story that takes place in Salem is The Crucible by Arthur Miller (1953). My high school put this on my senior year and I was blown away by the performance.

In The Crucible Year by Norma Johnston (1979), recovering from her father’s death, Elizabeth transfers to public school and takes an intense humanities seminar on The Crucible.  She sees the play’s conflicts come to life when she gets a lead part and her friends and teacher get caught up in issues of sexuality. It’s 1963 and there is little tolerance in her high school community (not much has changed).  Some may recall that Norma dedicated her first book to Maud Hart Lovelace!

Another book about talented teenage performers is Love, Jacaranda by Alex Flinn (2020). Jacaranda is a gifted but poor girl whose mother is in prison; when a video of her singing goes viral, a mysterious benefactor provides a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school for her to study musical theater.

Love, Jacaranda is a retelling of Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster (1912). Judy Abbott bestows this nickname on the benefactor who sends her to a Vassar-like college after she sees his shadow. I love this book but I know some people who read it as adults think DLL is a stalker.

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Another book that sounds like but isn’t about a spider is my favorite book by Elizabeth Enright, Spiderweb for Two (1951). Randy and Oliver are lonely after their older siblings go away to school but are distracted by a treasure hunt. This is the fourth book about the Melendy family, now living in the country – the first book, The Saturdays is the best known of the series. Do you say MEL-endy or Mel-ENDy?

And, finally, if you want a book that is about a spider, what could be better than Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White?

What is the connection between my starting book and final link? Well, Maine is in New England and E.B. White (known to his friends as Andy) moved with his wife to a farmhouse in Maine, which was the inspiration for Charlotte’s Web. Also, although I’d forgotten, my final book last month was a biography of E.B. White.

So this month I traveled from New England to New Jersey to Michigan (Jacaranda’s school must be inspired by Interlochen Arts Academy), then to upstate New York with Judy Abbott, staying in the area with the Melendys, and on to Maine.

Next month (May 4, 2024), Kate has chosen The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop (2023), a literary mystery.