author page: Elaine Beebe

Elaine Beebe lives in Barrington with her daughter. A freelance writer and editor, Elaine has covered everything from climate change in Bhutan to bands that will never become famous, California charter schools to the Pillsbury Bake-Off. If I were a super hero, I would be Grammar Girl, proofreading faster than a speeding bullet.

Level3 & Dilly Dilly at the Barrington Library

[ 0 ] 7.18.2012 | Elaine Beebe

Level3, the band in Hilary Weisman Graham’s new Young Adult novel, “Reunited,” is on a pretend tour from Boston to Austin this summer; non-fictional indie rock star Dilly Dilly performs. Come to the Barrington Public Library this Friday for live music, free MP3s from the bands, free chapters from the book, a photo op inside Level3’s tour van: for very meta entertainment.

Details: FRIDAY, JULY 20, 3 p.m., Barrington Public Library, 281 County Road, Barrington. Free.

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Bri Johnson’s Secret Reading List for Tweens and Teens

[ 4 ] 7.18.2012 | Elaine Beebe

We’re familiar with the current, most popular books for American tweens and teens (Twilight, The Hunger Games, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and The Lightning Thief, for example). This summer, discover some lesser-known titles — true stories hiding deep in the nonfiction stacks, and old favorites passed over for the latest craze.

For readers interested in the turbulent lives of literary trailblazers: Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath, by Stephanie Hemphill

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Spending Time at Coggeshall Farm Museum in Bristol

[ 1 ] 7.11.2012 | Elaine Beebe

At Coggeshall Farm Museum’s “Breakfast in the Barnyard,” visitors of all ages soak up New England’s past in a tranquil setting.

Unlike most historic sites, no one famous lived here. By recreating the everyday life of a 1790s tenant-farm family, the farm unveils a realistic, untold and interactive portrait of history.

Coggeshall’s directors are sticklers for accuracy, well beyond the standards of most living-history museums. Whenever possible, the species of animals and plants are identical to or approximate those of 18th-century Bristol. So are the farm tools and the animals’ diet of hay grown onsite – did you know grain is junk food for animals?

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