PORTSMOUTH—
Strawbery Banke Museum has won first place in the 2011 New England Museum Association Publication Award Competition for “Good Morning, Strawbery Banke.” The 40-page, full-color book aimed at readers aged 4-8 was written and illustrated by Wickie Rowland. The book won its category of volumes priced at $10 or less. NEMA received 206 entries from 64 organizations competing in 16 categories for the 2011 awards.
Dan Yeager, President of NEMA said, “Your publication design puts you in very good company at the top ranks of our region’s institutions. The judges were extremely impressed with the high quality of all of the entries and expressed pride to come from a region that produces such high caliber work.” The award-winning publications will be exhibited at the NEMA Annual Conference in Hartford, CT in November. This is the second time a Strawbery Banke Museum book has won NEMA honors. In 2008, J. Dennis Robinson’s history, “Strawbery Banke: A Seaport Museum 400 Years in the Making” also won.
The book has won an enthusiastic audience for the story and its real-life hero, J. D., the black cat who roams the 10-acre living history museum in downtown Portsmouth. On each page, J.D. walks through different perspectives and ways of life, from historic to modern at Strawbery Banke. Watercolor pen drawings depict J.D.’s tour through time. One reviewer of the book commented, “Wickie Rowland is an exquisite illustrator and the text is easy enough reading for younger history buffs to grasp, yet interesting enough for all ages to get involved in. This book should be required reading in grade school history classes, as it gives a wonderful, tangible experience of life in early New England.”
“I am particularly pleased that Strawbery Banke Museum has earned a New England Museum Association Award for a book aimed primarily at children, as we constantly work at bringing the story of life in Portsmouth we tell here approachable for all,” said Museum President Lawrence J. Yerdon. “J.D. the cat is an ideal ambassador and we very much appreciate Wickie Rowland’s success in giving him such a delightful letter of introduction on our behalf.”
Published in 2010 by Publishing Works in Exeter, NH with funding from Piscataqua Savings Bank and designed by Anna Pearlman, “Good Morning, Strawbery Banke” is available in the Museum Store and from booksellers. Publisher Jeremy Townsend congratulated Strawbery Banke and author Rowland on the award, saying, “It is a pleasure to be the publisher of such a wonderful, wonderful book. Everyone who sees it is charmed and apparently the New England Museum Association judges were no exception. Congratulations to Strawbery Banke Museum and Wickie Rowland!”
Established in 1959, Strawbery Banke Museum (www.strawberybanke.org) is a 10-acre living history campus that presents nearly 400 years of New Hampshire history through the stories, artifacts and buildings of Portsmouth families. With a backdrop of 16 historic buildings and gardens, role-players, working craftspeople and interpreters reflect the evolution of Portsmouth from the early Colonial period of maritime trade through its 1950s neighborhood of Puddle Dock.
Photo caption: (Courtesy book cover image of “Good Morning, Strawbery Banke”)
Strawbery Banke Museum has won first place in the 2011 New England Museum Association Publication Award Competition for “Good Morning, Strawbery Banke.” The 40-page, full-color book aimed at readers aged 4-8 was written and illustrated by Wickie Rowland. The book won its category of volumes priced at $10 or less. NEMA received 206 entries from 64 organizations competing in 16 categories for the 2011 awards.
Dan Yeager, President of NEMA said, “Your publication design puts you in very good company at the top ranks of our region’s institutions. The judges were extremely impressed with the high quality of all of the entries and expressed pride to come from a region that produces such high caliber work.” The award-winning publications will be exhibited at the NEMA Annual Conference in Hartford, CT in November. This is the second time a Strawbery Banke Museum book has won NEMA honors. In 2008, J. Dennis Robinson’s history, “Strawbery Banke: A Seaport Museum 400 Years in the Making” also won.
The book has won an enthusiastic audience for the story and its real-life hero, J. D., the black cat who roams the 10-acre living history museum in downtown Portsmouth. On each page, J.D. walks through different perspectives and ways of life, from historic to modern at Strawbery Banke. Watercolor pen drawings depict J.D.’s tour through time. One reviewer of the book commented, “Wickie Rowland is an exquisite illustrator and the text is easy enough reading for younger history buffs to grasp, yet interesting enough for all ages to get involved in. This book should be required reading in grade school history classes, as it gives a wonderful, tangible experience of life in early New England.”
“I am particularly pleased that Strawbery Banke Museum has earned a New England Museum Association Award for a book aimed primarily at children, as we constantly work at bringing the story of life in Portsmouth we tell here approachable for all,” said Museum President Lawrence J. Yerdon. “J.D. the cat is an ideal ambassador and we very much appreciate Wickie Rowland’s success in giving him such a delightful letter of introduction on our behalf.”
Published in 2010 by Publishing Works in Exeter, NH with funding from Piscataqua Savings Bank and designed by Anna Pearlman, “Good Morning, Strawbery Banke” is available in the Museum Store and from booksellers. Publisher Jeremy Townsend congratulated Strawbery Banke and author Rowland on the award, saying, “It is a pleasure to be the publisher of such a wonderful, wonderful book. Everyone who sees it is charmed and apparently the New England Museum Association judges were no exception. Congratulations to Strawbery Banke Museum and Wickie Rowland!”
Established in 1959, Strawbery Banke Museum (www.strawberybanke.org) is a 10-acre living history campus that presents nearly 400 years of New Hampshire history through the stories, artifacts and buildings of Portsmouth families. With a backdrop of 16 historic buildings and gardens, role-players, working craftspeople and interpreters reflect the evolution of Portsmouth from the early Colonial period of maritime trade through its 1950s neighborhood of Puddle Dock.
Photo caption: (Courtesy book cover image of “Good Morning, Strawbery Banke”)
