Grads

Two alumni of the MALS program have recently released new books. Deborah Prum (MALS’82), an award-winning author, launched her young adult novel Fatty in the Back Seat. Her hero, Cuss Brewster, is one of the approximately 10 percent of school-aged children in the United States with a learning disability. The 15-year-old experiences a great discrepancy between his potential for learning and what he actually learns. His parents believe he is merely lazy. Although he is good natured, he is constantly in trouble. When he accidentally burns down his neighbor’s barn, not his first fire-related mishap, a judge gives him six months to change his behavior or face a jail term. His mother’s boyfriend has no use for Cuss and wants to send him to military school. Two weeks before his probation hearing Cuss accidentally drives the boyfriend’s Porsche through a garage door. Just when life cannot get much worse, Cuss meets the Garcia family. They take him into their lives, give him a job in their landscaping business and help him realize he is a person of great value. The novel treats the topic with humor and offers hope to those with learning disabilities. The novel is available in print on Amazon.com and everywhere e-books are sold. Deborah’s humorous essays air on NPR-member stations and are published in newspapers and magazines. She writes funny, anecdotal histories for young adults and lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In her second novel, Little Island, a Berkeley Trade paperback original, Katharine Britton (MALS’05) writes the drama of a patrician family gathering on an island off Maine for the recently deceased grandmother’s memorial. Her daughter Grace has interpreted her last words, “Grace. Flowers. By the water. Have fun!” as instructions for the service. Grace’s daughter Joy dreads the weekend. Twenty years before a tragedy had nearly destroyed the family and still defines them. Beneath the surface of this tragedy is a terrible secret that haunts them all. Joy, facing an empty nest and a nebulous future, feels more vulnerable than ever to the dangerous currents running through her family. It is only when the secret is revealed that every member of the family can honestly reappraise the past and come to a deeper understanding of who they are and what they mean to each other. Katharine is member of Vermont Writers and PEN New England. She has taught writing at Colby-Sawyer College and the Writer’s Center in White River Junction, Vermont. Her first book, Her Sister’s Shadow, was published two years ago. She will be giving readings from Little Island at bookstores in the Upper Valley this fall and currently lives in Norwich, Vermont.

I received the sad news from Tom Berry that his mother, charlotte Michal Berry (math’63), passed away on August 12. Charlotte had the distinction of being the first woman to earn a degree from Dartmouth. Soon after receiving her master’s, she married a Dartmouth classmate, Thomas Vincent Berry. She spent a long career working as a teacher and administrator at boarding schools. She was 72 years old and was buried in Lynchburg, Virginia.

175 Greensboro Road, Hanover, NH 03755; (603) 643-3789; m.jane.welsh.adv98@alum.dartmouth.org