In late winter when the days are warm but the nights are still cold, the sap starts to run in sugar maples. Throughout New England, buckets and tubing begin to adorn trees, and the steady plinking of sap dripping into buckets can be heard throughout the sugarbush. This month’s literature guide spotlights titles that can be used to learn about sugaring – both the science behind it and the role that it plays in rural New England culture.

Nonfiction

• Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky and Christopher G. Knight
• I Was Born When the Sap Runs by Randall Weber

Fiction

• The Maple Thanksgiving by Joseph Bruchac and Anna Vojtech
• Sugaring by Jessie Haas and Jos. A. Smith
• Just Like Jackie by Lindsey Stoddard
• At Grandpa’s Sugar Bush by Margaret Carney and Janet Wilson
• Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie DePaola

Download our PDF guide for more information about each title.

Robin Morgan Huntley, Community-Based Education Correspondent

Robin joined Hilltown Families in 2011 as an intern and has remained with the organization ever since, first volunteering as a community-based education correspondent until 2016 and now as a contributing writer with two monthly columns. Robin is a graduate of Hampshire College and Antioch University New England, where she studied place- and community-based education. She lives on the banks of the Sheepscot River in Maine, where she and her husband are working to start a small farm. Robin teaches at Juniper Hill School for Place-Based Education and is the founder of our first affiliate community-based education network, Dirigo Learning.