Community Library Notes - March, 2026

Leviathan!
by Sarah Nathe
March on the Mendocino Coast has many people scanning the ocean for whale spouts and flukes. We celebrate the gray whales swimming back to the Gulf of Alaska from their vacation spot down in the Baja California. In addition to the whale watches, the lectures, the chowder tastings, and the boat trips, reading about whales is an approved Whale Festival pastime. The Mendocino Community Library has plenty of good books about the big mammal, for both adults and kids.

The most famous literary whale appears in “Moby Dick,” the 19th century classic by Herman Melville. Despite its daunting length, it is actually a very good, sometimes funny, book. Young Ishmael has recently left a merchant trading vessel and decides that his next trip should be on a whaling vessel. He finds himself on the Pequod under Captain Ahab, who is nursing a grudge against a white sperm whale that attacked his last ship and bit off his leg. The reader of this novel will come to appreciate the futility of vengeance and the limits of human knowledge, and gain a detailed understanding of whales and the horrors of whaling.
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Nathaniel Philbrick tells the actual story of the whaling vessel, the Essex, in his Pulitzer Prize winning “In the Heart of the Sea.” The sinking of that ship inspired Melville to write his novel about Ahab’s obsession. In 1820 the Essex set off from Nantucket to hunt sperm whales in the Pacific Ocean and, in the middle of that ocean, it was attacked by one of the sperm whales it was pursuing. Most of the crew escaped the sinking ship and attempted to get to dry land in the whaling boats. Many died of starvation before they made it, but a few survived to tell the tale.

Until the 1872 publication of “The Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast of North America,” whales and other sea mammals were not well understood. As the captain of a whaling ship, Charles Scammon closely observed and made detailed measurements of the animals he was tracking. Scammon was able to gather vital information, much of which has been confirmed by contemporary science, and the book is a testimony to Scammon's evolution from a whaler and profiteer to a conservationist who admired the animals he hunted.

Larry Foster devoted decades of study and research into body shapes of whales, dolphins, and porpoises in order to depict the creatures as the graceful and streamlined marine mammals they are. His beautiful paintings and drawings debunk the centuries-old images of whales as grotesque, blimpy, dangerous animals. “The Art of Discovering Whales” is a detailed chronicle of Foster’s 50-plus-year career producing anatomically correct portrayals of 75+ species.

In the DVD department, we have “Whale Rider,” a 2002 movie, based on the 1987 novel by New Zealand’s Witi Ihimaera. The ever-popular film is about a young girl named Kahu who wants to become head of her Maori tribe, but she is excluded from the position by her gender. However, she is the only grandchild of the current leader, so if not her, then who? When hundreds of whales are beached near her village, Kahu discovers that she has the ability to talk to whales, just like the ancient chiefs did.

For the younger set, we have many great whale books, both small and large, and I will mention a few of our favorites. In Julia Donaldson’s “The Snail and the Whale,” a tiny gastropod meets a humpback cetacean and the two travel together to far-off lands. It's a dream come true for the snail, who has never left home before, but when the whale swims too close to shore, will the snail be able to save her new friend? With vibrant illustrations and playful rhymes, the book is a hymn to the world’s beauty and a reminder that love comes in all shapes and sizes.

Benji Davies’ “The Storm Whale” introduces us to Noi, a boy who lives with his father by the sea. Noi’s fisherman father leaves early in the morning every day and returns only after Noi has gone to bed. Understandably, this situation leaves Noi lonely and isolated. After a storm one day, Noi discovers a baby whale washed up on the shore. It is injured so Noi takes it home and keeps it hidden in his bathtub. The two form a friendship and Noi finally is not so alone. Will his father discover the whale (it’s kind of hard to miss) and make him give it up?

Many northern Californians will remember when Humphrey the humpback took a wrong turn into San Francisco Bay in 1985 and swam up the Sacramento River. He was trapped in the fresh water of the Delta for a number of weeks and grew increasingly ill. A huge rescue operation finally got him headed in the right direction. A local TV reporter, Wendy Tokuda, turned the saga into “Humphrey the Lost Whale,” a delightful story for kids that celebrates the value of teamwork and caring for our wild friends.

“Rock-a-Bye Whale,” a classic by Florence P. Strange, describes the birth (in an age-appropriate way) and early experiences of a humpback whale. The beautifully illustrated book follows the little fellow up until he goes to high school.

Come into the library and learn about whales on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. And take a look at the latest best-selling fiction and nonfiction books, mysteries and romances, DVDs, and jigsaw puzzles. Visit the web page (https://www.mendocinocommunitylibrary.org/) to learn more about becoming a member or to find any item in the collection.

Outstanding in Its Field - February, 2026
by Severine v T Welcome

The Mendocino Community Library has received donation of a complete set of the “New Farmers Almanac,” Volumes 1-7. The almanac is a literary miscellany in the form of a monthly calendar, written by farmers across the U.S. Published since 2019, the almanacs are the work of Greenhorns, a young farmers organization based in Maine and led since 2008 by me, a relatively new Mendocino resident. Each 300 page volume contains essays, creative nonfiction, poems, archival material, and contemporary artwork that take us through the year. The almanacs are available for checkout from the library, but if you want to own a copy, all the editions are also for sale at the Gallery Bookstore and Goodlife Café.

The format of the book follows that of Ben Franklin's original “Old Farmers Almanack,” accessible as '”outhouse literature” for short moments of reading in a busy farmer's day. More than 100 new works appear in the latest volume, by farmers, artists, activists, organizers, journalists, storytellers, poets, teachers, scholars, scientists, and chefs. Many themes applicable to Mendocino County are reflected in these pages: adapting to climate change, rural community-building, planting and weeding techniques, appropriate technology, historic recipes adapted for modern cooks, humor, basket weaving, and dealing with economic perplexity, to name a few.

Printed in full color for the first time, the 2025 edition’s theme is PREMONITION. Like dreams, literature allows our psyches to sort, unfold and reorganize memories and meaning. Evolutionary life, learning from challenge and extremity, unfolds with inspiration and trembles toward survival. Humans are earth-bound beings in tune with a world wide web of soil. This edition asks us to share our premonitions and respond to the messages we receive from the living world.

The epigraph for Volume 7 is a quote from Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of “The Secret Garden.” It captures beautifully the spirit of this almanac: “Sometimes in the garden I’ve looked up through the trees at the sky and have had a strange feeling of being happy as if something was pushing and drawing in my chest and making me breathe fast. Magic is always pushing and drawing and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of magic: leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So it must be all around us. In this garden and in all places.”

According to the editor, Patrick Kiley, humans have ordered their ethnobotany, horticulture, agriculture, culture, and their civics through relationships with terrestrial spaces—a world alive with emblems, forebears, signs. Long before empires and plantations and predictive algorithms, we reacted to landscape signals. Greenhorns have a wide range of projects, producing various forms of media and events over the years. One project relevant to the Mendocino coastline is called Seaweed Commons, a working group of seaweed harvesters and small-scale aquaculturists whose whitepaper describes shared goals for both the seaweed farmers and regulators of public waters (www.earthlife.tv/seaweed).  Always the Greenhorn mission is to enliven and support young agrarians as they navigate the adversity inherent in running a land-based business in a world gone mad.

The New Farmers Almanac is available to peruse or check out during open hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. As always, there are the latest best-selling fiction and nonfiction books, mysteries and romances, DVDs, and jigsaw puzzles. Visit the web page (https://www.mendocinocommunitylibrary.org/) to learn more about becoming a member or to find any item in the collection.
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​After more than half a century of community support, the Mendocino Community Library now holds 13,000+ books, puzzles, audio books, and movies - including those filmed in Mendocino.
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