An Asian Aura

Reviving mid-century modernism at CCNC

By Deborah Salomon   •   Photographs by John Gessner

Minimalism treats space as an object. Therefore, the 6,500-square-foot residence of Dr. Sun Moon Kim and his wife, Sylvia Jeongmin Kim, flows around multiple open spaces. Light streaming onto forest and ponds creates seasonal backdrops seen through tall, unshaded windows. Furniture, where required, is spare and sculptural.

The result: serene, quiet, contemporary with an Asian buzz and a transformative history.

If ever a house reflected its occupants, this is it.

Sun Moon and Sylvia are a fit, handsome, thoughtful Korean couple who know what they like. Their adorable daughters — Adrianne, 7, and Lillian, 3 — chatter in English or Korean in a family room where toys are the only clutter.

“We don’t like clutter,” Sylvia says, with a slight frown.

“We grew up that way — neat, clean, no clutter,” her husband adds. Already, the children understand tidying up.

The environment they have created matches a description of Korean architecture as naturalistic, simple, displaying an economy of shape and avoidance of extremes. However, the story of how the Kims found this house deep in the Country Club of North Carolina residential enclave illustrates serendipity, or luck.

Sun Moon was born in Brooklyn, where his father studied medicine. He returned to Korea for seven years before settling in the United States. While an undergrad at Georgia Tech he met Sylvia, a stunning Korean flight attendant who traveled worldwide for Etihad Airways, based in Abu Dhabi. She would arrange her flight schedule to coincide with his whereabouts. Sun Moon’s medical training and cardiology specialty took him to the West Indies, Kentucky and Chapel Hill where, now married with children, they squeezed into rented townhouses.

Settling in a small town wasn’t their agenda. However, when Sun Moon, a golfer, learned of the Reid Heart Center in Pinehurst, he said, “Let’s go visit.” He was impressed not only by the medical facilities, but by the area where “kids run around among trees and nature.”

“We fell in love,” Sylvia said.

Enough in love to accept a position at Reid and look for a home that met their stringent specifications.

Move-in condition was not one of them.

Central North Carolina in the post-war 1950s was no hotbed of architectural innovation. Ranch houses with breezeway and attached garage sprung up everywhere, interspersed with brick Colonials, clapboard Victorians, shingled Cape Cod cottages, a few predictable split levels or, in gated country club settings, ante- and post-bellum Southern mansions.

Then, N.C. State University College of Design imported young Japanese-American architect George Matsumoto from California, who introduced a style soon applauded around the nation: mid-century modernism — described as angular, spare, flat, glass, wood and, yes, faintly Asian. Matsumoto’s homes stood in stark, often shocking, contrast to their neighbors. They definitely required related lighting and furnishings, as well as amenable residents.

Because flowery chintz and wall-to-wall carpet don’t belong in mid-century modern.

Matsumoto’s students and successors spread the concept through the Research Triangle and tri-state areas. Ed Lowenstein, another modernist who revolutionized Greensboro, sent Thomas Hayes to Southern Pines, where Hayes settled and built not only his own home, but several others in Weymouth, Knollwood and elsewhere.

In 1952, the all-boys club received a woman’s touch when Elizabeth Bobbitt Lee became the first of her gender to graduate from the N.C. State design school. By 1986 Lee, now an established architect, was hired to design a house at CCNC.

Like its prototypes, it was described as “very brown,” meaning the exterior faded into the wooded acreage, but its outlines suggest an Asian influence. The Kims saw beneath the flowered chintz upholstery and wall-to-wall carpet within.

“The architecture was way ahead but (the interior) was stuck in the ’80s,” Sun Moon says. “We walked in and saw the house as our own sanctuary.” In 2019 the house had been on the market for a while. “It needed total renovation.”

No problem. They were young, brave, strong, ready to tackle the job, in part with their own hands. Besides, they found a talisman left hanging on the living room wall: a large painting of a kimono, common in Korea as well as Japan.

“This is it,” they decided, and looked no further.

Renovating a 6,500-square-foot house with six bedrooms (each with a balcony) and eight bathrooms (previously 10) while Sun Moon practiced cardiology and Sylvia cared for two young children proved a challenge. They acted as general contractors, hiring professionals for plumbing and electrical, heating and AC, but did much of the design and grunt work — stripping wallpaper, painting, carpentry, installations — themselves. Enclosed spaces were opened, a flow established from the enormous family room leading onto an equally enormous deck, through dining room, living room (with fireplace in the center rather than on an exterior wall), built-in bar area and hallway to all main-floor bedrooms except the master, which is located off the family room. In the true spirit of minimalism, this master bedroom is simply a low platform bed in a room, with tissue-fabric window coverings and a wall decoration composed of slats. No chairs, no chests or tables, no bureaus. Adjoining is a windowless bath-dressing room-closet suite the size of a studio apartment, centered around a double shower with glass walls on three sides. The entire house, previously carpeted (even the bathrooms), is unified by PVC floorboards, a contrast to light area rugs.

“This is good for the kids and the dog,” Sun Moon says.

Because the house is built on an incline the basement is above ground, with a central room, still empty, proportioned for floor hockey or tricycle races; also a kitchen and two guest bedrooms with bathrooms perfect for grandparents, still in Korea.

Just outside the glass doors, the girls play on a colorful gym set like those found in the best parks.

Realtors suggest a house sinks or swims in the kitchen.

The Kims are foodies. “We live to eat,” Sun Moon says. Travel destinations include culinary meccas. The Kims demolished the original kitchen — huge, well-equipped by 1980s standards, with light paneled wood cabinetry — to install a smaller version, designed by Sylvia, where every square inch has a purpose, every cupboard holds enough, but not an overabundance, of dishes. Where the highest-end appliances work to optimum efficiency. Where the Asian aura continues in sleek black, brown, sand and white surfaces. Where Sylvia and Sun Moon prepare beautiful, healthy Korean and American meals.

In a bold but logical move, this couple decided to leave almost all their furnishings behind and start anew. High Point wasn’t an option. Sylvia measured carefully, then shopped online for simple pieces, some statuesque, others spectacular, like the dining-area chandelier. She chose neutrals, avoiding primary colors except in the princess-style girls’ rooms in pink and mint green.

“I looked at thousands of pictures for inspiration but I didn’t copy anything,” Sylvia says.

The 5 acres surrounding the Kim residence have been left au naturel except for a stone walkway linking the house and two ponds, one with a footbridge, each with a geyser fountain, both large enough to accommodate fish. Another water sculpture stands between the circular drive and front door, creating an expectation of what lies ahead. Foliage hides the house from the road. Moss covers much of the ground. Azaleas and dogwoods bloom in the spring, but formal beds would look contrived.

Minimalism as practiced by the Kims is more than a style or a period, furniture or decor. “I try to apply it to general life,” Sylvia says. “I spend time researching before I shop, think a lot about minimalizing the amount of stuff in our lives.” Buying less allows buying better. This applies to groceries and clothing.

“We want each piece of furniture to go along with the rest of the house — and let the house do the talking,” Sun Moon adds. “We want to breathe the house, enjoy it with five senses.”

Luckily, husband and wife share the same taste and philosophies. Otherwise, “People can get divorced when renovating a home,” Sun Moon says.

Not the Kims. Their house represents a partnership moving in the same direction, inspired by an American feminist trailblazer who challenged Southern tradition with an architectural mode distilled from Frank Lloyd Wright, George Matsumoto, Scandinavian modern and classic Asian, which coalesced when a Japanese-American came to Raleigh in 1948 to inspire a coterie of architects chafing for change.

“We’ve seen photos of Miss Lee on-site,” Sun Moon says. “I think she would be proud, how we preserved the story of the house and honored the architect,” in part by returning the interior to its intended karma. “My motto, don’t follow any one trend. Instead, do what expresses us in the best way.”  PS

Almanac

By Ashley Wahl

July spills her secrets to the night.

At twilight, as the earth exhales the sun’s hot kiss, the parish of crickets chants glory to the rising moon and a softness spills across the landscape.

In the garden, a luminous sea of moonflowers opens beneath the glittering heavens. Fragrant blossoms resemble tiny white horns — silent galaxies transmitting sweetness from the darkness to the great abyss.

A night bird calls out from the shadows.

Does he sing his own name — whip-poor-will — or does he sing of the muse? 

 

Night-bloom-er.

Moon-flow-er.

Hard to tell.

As constellations of fireflies rise from the tall grass, cicadas blurt out their shameless confessions. It seems that each moment is a dance between sound and light, and as moths orbit lamp posts like tiny winged planets, five deep, guttural bellows resound.

A bullfrog moans from an unseen pond. It’s not a siren song, per se — more like a trembling cellist exploring a single string — but enchanting, nonetheless.

Might it draw you to the water? Will you run your fingers along the pond’s silky surface, dip your toes into its coolness, hum a sonorous tune of your own?

Maybe.

Only the night will know for sure.

Edible Landscape

The garden is churning out summer squash and snap beans. Beefsteaks and Brandywines grow plump and heavy. And yet, everywhere you turn, edible treasures spill forth.

Blackberry patches at the edge of the woods.

Wineberries along favorite trails.

Mushrooms galore — boletes, leatherbacks, chanterelles and, if you’re lucky, chicken of the woods.

Red clover and dandelion, daylilies and chickweed, chicory and burdock roots.

Yet at the height of this summer abundance, don’t forget: Now’s time to sow seeds for the autumn harvest.

Something Sweet

Japanese wineberries: delicious though invasive. So, if you are wondering what to do with your daily harvest (besides eat them by the handful or tuck them into your favorite cobbler), consider using them for a cool, summer treat.
Got lemon balm? A friend passed along this simple recipe:

Wineberry & Lemon Balm Sorbet

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh-picked wineberries (rinsed and drained)

1/4 cup sugar

1 handful lemon balm leaves (rinsed and dried)

1/4 cup water

Additional ice water

Directions:

Line wineberries on a cookie sheet to put in freezer.

While berries are freezing, make simple syrup by stirring water, sugar and lemon balm in saucepan over medium heat. Once mixture reaches a boil, remove from heat and allow syrup to cool completely before straining out the leaves. Put syrup in a covered container; refrigerate.

Once berries are frozen, combine them with cold syrup in blender with a few teaspoons of ice water. Blend until smooth, adding more ice water if needed.

Enjoy immediately.

Mosquito is out,
it’s the end of the day;
she’s humming and hunting
her evening away.
Who knows why such hunger
arrives on such wings
at sundown? I guess
it’s the nature of things.

—N. M. Bodecker,
Midsummer Night Itch

Below Expectations

Amber Share’s tongue-in-cheek take on promoting North Carolina’s natural treasures

By Addie Ladner

I don’t claim to be from anywhere,” says Amber Share. The daughter of a Navy chief, Share and her family spent much of her childhood on the move. By the time she entered high school, Share had lived in Italy and five different states, and family trips took her all over the country. In Hawaii, she explored the lava-laced shores of the Ala Kahakai Trail; in Florida, she trekked through the Everglades with manatee and alligator sightings. A road trip across the southwestern United States brought her through the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

For Share, these national parks became home. They were timeless, everlasting, grounding experiences to her. “Parks solidified a vacation in my mind,” she says.

Those experiences have stayed with her since, etched in her mind and soul. “Even as an adult living in Washington, D.C., a bustling city, I would go to Rock Creek Park for reprieve,” she says. “Or I would drive to Shenandoah. Anytime I want a break in my life, I wind up in a park.”

Share studied graphic design and fine art at the University of Nebraska. After graduation, she landed a job working full-time in Raleigh at a design agency. But she began to crave a creative project of her own. “As a professional designer, you don’t get to draw. I wanted a side project that was a creative outlet for me and pertained to my interest.” She thought about all those national parks she visited over her lifetime and started sketching them on her iPad.

Soon, she had retro illustrations of places like Joshua Tree National Park’s desert landscape and the Grand Canyon’s rocky ochre horizon. But she wanted text on her illustrations, something to identify them, something other than the park name. “Drawing the parks proved to be a nice capsule project,” says Share. “But I wanted something more unique.”

She stumbled across a perplexing one-star review of a national park on Reddit that had her laughing out loud. “Save yourself some money. Boil some water at home,” said one visitor to Yellowstone — a landmark that spans three states and is home to the world’s tallest active geyser. That became her aha moment. “This review was too good not to do anything with,” she thought. Soon, she found other strange, yet hilarious, reviews. “The only thing to do here is walk around the desert,” said a guest of Joshua Tree National Park. Another griped that the Grand Canyon is just “a hole. A very, very large hole.”

These one-star reviews were the perfect amount of words to add to the bottom of her illustrations. “You might not notice the words at first, it’s just a beautiful landscape,” Share says. And she chose the reviews strategically: “My focus was reviews that have to do with the experience of nature. I’m not here to make a statement about how well or not well the parks are managed. It’s more about people being underwhelmed by nature. Most people just find it hilarious.”

And indeed, they do: in December of 2019 she shared her illustrations on Instagram with the handle @subparparks — and they went viral. By spring of 2020, sites like Reddit, BuzzFeed, Boston Globe, and Insider found the juxtaposition between these natural wonders and under-enthused reviewers as hysterical as she did.

Soon, people wanted her illustrations to hang on their walls and send to their friends. So she created an online shop with things like stationery and posters. After that came more illustrations around the great outdoors; and products like planners, too. “It’s funny because when I started it didn’t occur to me that anyone would want it as a sticker or postcard,” she says.

Share left her full-time job in March of 2020 and has since focused solely on the Subpar Parks project and other creative gigs. Her book, America’s Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed Visitors, debuts this month. It holds all her most popular illustrations, plus new parks for which Share has unearthed one-star reviews. Landmarks and national monuments, like Cape Hatteras and the Blue Ridge Mountains, also make an appearance. It shows her illustrations of 63 national parks with 13 additional national monuments, seashores, lakes, and national recreation areas, many of which haven’t yet appeared on her Instagram. “It’s more than 200 pages with half of it, new content,” Share says.

And on these pages, as a nod to her resident state’s diverse and awe-inspiring state parks resting on mountains, sand dunes, and dense forests, Share illustrated a North Carolina series of Subpar Parks.

For example: along the Outer Banks in Nags Head rests Jockey’s Ridge State Park. It’s a vast rolling dune — the largest dune system in the eastern United States — with vantage points as far as the eye can see. But to one visitor, it’s “sand but nothing else.” At Hanging Rock State Park, a mountainous region known for its waterfalls and spring rhododendrons, another visitor found that “trees obscure the view.”

Share may have her tongue firmly planted in her cheek in her illustrations but they still serve as a reminder of how lucky we are to be surrounded by North Carolina’s incredible parks and recreation areas. Get out and enjoy them this summer.  PS

“Anytime I want a break in my life, I wind up in a park. ”–Amber Share

Good Natured

Tea Time

Refreshing, and good for you

By Karen Frye

Here in the South, drinking tea is almost a birthright. The good news for us tea (and sweet tea) lovers is that a recent study from the University of California in Irvine School of Medicine revealed that two catechin-type flavonoids found in both green and black tea activate a process in the body that relaxes the blood vessels. This discovery could be helpful in the treatment of hypertension. So, enjoy your glass of tea; just be careful of the amount of sugar you use to sweeten it — or maybe use honey or stevia instead.

There are a few other teas that can quench your thirst on these hot summer days. Yerba mate is a lovely tea with similar benefits as green and black teas. The tree where the tea leaves are found is a species of holly found deep in the rainforests of South America. The leaves are hand-harvested by farmers in indigenous communities in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Yerba mate contains less caffeine than a cup of coffee (about 85 mg), but a little more than a cup of black tea.

Just like black and green teas, yerba mate is rich in antioxidants. It also has 24 vitamins and minerals, 15 amino acids, and abundant polyphenols to slow down the aging process. Some of the benefits of this superfood tea are increasing energy and mental focus, boosting the immune system, and lowering blood sugar and heart disease risks. Yerba mate nourishes while it stimulates. 

Hibiscus tea is a caffeine-free tea that is as delicious as iced tea. Its lovely rosy color is reminiscent of Kool-Aid. Children will find it a delicious drink as well. Hibiscus flowers are from the hibiscus plant, but not the ornamental variety that we see blooming in the summer.

Here is a simple recipe for an energizing, cold-brewed tea on sweltering summer days:

3 tablespoons loose leaf black tea (or 5 tablespoons yerba mate or hibiscus flowers)

6 cups cool water

3 tablespoons honey or to taste

1 lemon, sliced

Add the loose leaf tea and cool water to a large jar or tea pitcher. Stir to mix well. Seal the jar or pitcher and refrigerate 12 hours. When ready to serve, strain the tea into another container and add the honey and lemon slices.

Enjoy your delicious and healthful beverage.  PS

Karen Frye is the owner and founder of Nature’s Own and teaches yoga at the Bikram Yoga Studio.

PinePitch

Happy Fourthfest

The Independence Day Parade rolls in a day early in the Village of Pinehurst, showing off its patriotic pride from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 3. The parade will be followed by a fireworks display from 6 p.m. (well, actually, after dark, but you might want to show up early to get a spot) to 9 p.m. at the Pinehurst Harness Track, 200 Beulah Hill Road S., Pinehurst. For more information got to www.vopnc.org.

Hot Summer Deals Galore!

Downtown Southern Pines will be awash in deals for outdoor shoppers on Saturday, July 17 when the Broad Street businesses will hold a sidewalk sale in tandem with the pop-up vendors and crafters at Sunrise Marketplace. The sidewalk sale runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. while the tents on Sunrise Square come down an hour earlier. For additional information got to www.SouthernPines.biz.

Talkies on the Grass

Bring a blanket or a lounge chair and make yourself at home when the Sunrise Theater holds its summertime outdoor screenings of Hairspray (July 9 and 10), Austin Powers (July 16 and 17) and Little Shop of Horrors (July 30 and 31) on the Sunrise Square next to the theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. All movies begin at 8:45 p.m. and have the option of moving indoors in the event of thunderboomers. For more information call (910) 692-3611 or visit www.sunrisetheater.com.

Surf’s Up

The Country Bookshop and the locally-based company Tribe of Daughters are teaming up to offer a story time on Tuesday, July 13, at 3 p.m., featuring the surfing book Queenie Wahine, Little Surfer Girl. Tickets are $25 per family and include a copy of the book and activities. The story time will be at The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. For more information call (910) 692-3211 or visit www.ticketmesandhills.com.

Get the Buzz

Sign up for PineStraw’s newsletter PineBuzz at www.pinestrawmag.com.

 

Wherefore Art Thou?

Dr. Jonathan Drahos, UNC Pembroke’s director of theater, will help demystify Shakespeare during a theater camp for high school and Sandhills Community College Promise Program students ages 14-20 beginning Monday, July 19, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. The workshop culminates in a live performance for family and friends on July 24. Cost is $100. For information go to www.ticketmesandhills.com or jonathandrahos@me.com.

Lakeshore Flicks

Join Aberdeen Parks and Recreation for the family-friendly movie The Croods: A New Age, at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, July 16, at Aberdeen Lake Park, 301 Lake Park Crossing, Aberdeen. Concessions will be available for purchase. For additional information call (910) 944-7275.

Santa in July

Where does Santa go in the summer? You can find him at the Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst, on Saturday, July 24 from 10 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Your visit will include a picture with Santa, a snack and a holiday craft to take home. There are two time slots, one from 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. and from 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Space is limited. Santa’s helpers are taking reservations. For info and reservations call: (910) 295-3642.

Bookshelf

July Books

FICTION

Hell of a Book, by Jason Mott

In Hell of a Book, a Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. Hilarious, yet arresting, spellbinding and reflective, Hell of a Book is unforgettably told, with characters who burn into your mind and an electrifying plot ideal for book club discussion. Mott’s first author event for his debut novel, The Returned, was at The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines in 2014. Hell of a Book is the novel Mott has been writing in his head ever since.

The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

In her 20s, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating as she helps create a world-class collection. Belle simultaneously is passing as white with Portuguese heritage when in actuality she is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. The Personal Librarian is the story of a powerful and brilliant woman and the carefully crafted white identity that allowed her to succeed in the racist world in which she lived.

Embassy Wife, by Katie Crouch

Persephone Wilder is a displaced genius and the wife of an American diplomat in Namibia. She takes her job as a representative of her country seriously, coming up with an intricate set of rules to survive the problems she encounters: how to dress in hundred-degree weather without showing too much skin; how not to look drunk at embassy functions; and how to eat roasted oryx with grace. She also suspects her husband is not actually the ambassador’s legal counsel, but a secret agent in the CIA. The consummate embassy wife, she takes the newest spouse, Amanda Evans, under her wing. Propulsive and provocative, Embassy Wife asks what it means to be a human in this world, even as it helps us laugh in the face of our own absurd, seemingly impossible states of affairs.

Intimacies, by Katie Kitamura

From the author of A Separation, Kitamura’s new novel is the story of a woman who works as an interpreter at The Hague. A person of many languages and identities, she’s drawn into simmering personal dramas: Her lover, Adriaan, is still entangled in his former marriage; her friend Jana witnesses an act of violence; and the interpreter is pulled into an explosive political controversy when she’s asked to translate for a former president accused of war crimes. This woman is the voice in the ear of many, but what command does that give her, and how vulnerable does that leave her? She is soon pushed to the precipice, where betrayal and heartbreak threaten to overwhelm her, forcing her to decide what she wants from her life.

NONFICTION

The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age, by Amy Sohn

Anthony Comstock, special agent to the U.S. Post Office, passed a law in 1873 that severely penalized the mailing of contraception and obscenity. Eight women were charged with violating state and federal Comstock laws. These “sex radicals” — publishers, writers, doctors and the first woman presidential candidate — took on the fearsome censor in explicit, personal writing and in court seeking to redefine work, family, marriage and love for a bold new era. Risking imprisonment and death, they redefined birth control access as a civil liberty.

In the Forest of No Joy: The Congo-Océan Railroad and the Tragedy of French Colonialism, by J.P. Daughton

One of the deadliest construction projects in history, the Congo-Océan railroad was completed in 1934, when Equatorial Africa was a French colony. In the Forest of No Joy details the story of African workers forcibly conscripted, who hacked their way through dense tropical foliage, suffered disease, malnutrition, and rampant physical abuse, likely resulting in at least 20,000 deaths.

New Women in the Old West: From Settlers to Suffragists, an Untold American Story, by Winifred Gallagher

Survival in this uncharted American West for the more than half a million settlers between 1840 and 1910 required two hard-working partners, compelling women to take on equal responsibilities to men, a stark contrast to the experience of women in the East. As these women wielded their authority in public life for political gains, served in office and established institutions, they fought for the right to earn income, purchase property, and vote. In 1869, partly to lure more women, Wyoming gave women the vote. Utah, Colorado and Idaho followed. Nearly every Western state or territory had enfranchised women long before the 19th Amendment did so across the country in 1919.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Stingers, by Randy Wayne White

Readers searching for mystery and adventure need look no further than Stingers, the second book in the Sharks Incorporated Series. When marine biologist Doc Ford invites three young nature lovers to the Bahamas where invasive lionfish are upsetting the ecological balance of the coral reefs, they make a few unexpected discoveries that may just get them into deep water. (Ages 9-12.)

Bubbles Up, by Jacqueline Davies

A love poem to water and the many things one can do with it, this fun title screams of summer and sun and fun but also of self-confidence and empowerment. This picture book from the author of The Lemonade War is an absolute must for summer reading. (Age 3-5.)

Dino Gro, by Matt Myers

Everybody knows sometimes new friends have to grow on you, but in Cole’s case his new friend grows and grows and GROWS. Move over Clifford, author/illustrator Myers has created a new lovable oversized friend with Dino-Gro. This one is sure to be a big hit with little dinosaur lovers. (Ages 3-6.)

Faraway Things, by Dave Eggers

“It’s a faraway thing,” declares the boy when he finds a cutlass washed up on the beach. This faraway thing is, indeed, a ticket to another world for the boy, who must decide if it is worth more to keep the cutlass or venture into the world of the unknown to discover his real treasure. This lovely picture book will be enjoyed by readers of all ages as they dream of the sea and what real treasure means to them. (Ages 4-8.)  PS

Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws and Angie Tally.