Maine Lakefront Kids Enjoy Cooper and Packrat: Mystery on Pine Lake

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Out and About for the Bangor Lakes Region of Maine Oct. 16-22
Out and About for the Bangor Lakes Region of Maine Oct. 16-22
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Maine Lakefront Kids Enjoy Cooper and Packrat: Mystery on Pine Lake

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Crisp Blue Sky Reflected in Lower Range Pond, Poland, Maine


by Leigh Macmillen Hayes
Cooper and Packrat: Mystery on Pine Lake by Tamra Wight of Poland, Maine, is perfect for readers ages 8-12. Wight runs Poland Spring Campground on Lower Range Pond with her husband and two children.  During the school year, she’s a teaching assistant at Whittier Middle School.  Between the two, she has more writing inspiration than she knows what to do with.



The idea for Cooper and Packrat sparked back in 1997, during a really rainy spring. Campers reported the loons were trying to push the nest back, out of the rising lake water, but it was a losing battle for them. They lost their nest and their eggs.  It was so sad to hear the loons wail through that day. A couple weeks later, campers reported the loons had re-nested! They were sitting on two more eggs. Wight says she didn’t even know this was possible!  Both eggs hatched and two healthy chicks were raised that year.
“The whole experience about the loons losing their nest and only having one more chance to raise a family, that stuck with me,” says Wight. “When the campground closed for the season, I began writing a picture book in which a little girl and her grandmother help the loons re-nest on their lake. It came close to selling several times over the next few years, but I kept hearing over and over how the story was bigger than a picture book format.  I gave up on it and moved on to other projects. At some point, I started trying my hand at middle grade novels, and found the picture book in the back of a drawer. I dusted it off and tried to think of ways to take the losing-nest-then-renesting storyline from quiet to exciting. I used a campground setting, because it would be unique and could give Cooper many interesting friends and characters to work with. And because I knew it so well.  I wanted a mystery too, because I knew it would add tension and conflict, but what kind of mystery? And then I overheard a conversation in a restaurant where the speaker was grumbling about the loons on their lake.  To think someone wouldn’t like the loons! It had never occurred to me!”
Wight tells us that “Cooper thought living at a campground would be cool. But ever since his parents bought the lakeside campground, he’s had way more chores and way less time for his favorite hobby: nature-watching. And as if babysitting his little sister and cleaning bathrooms weren’t bad enough, his ex-friend Roy has chosen him as this summer’s bullying target. Cooper’s only bright spot is his new friend, Packrat, a guy who carries the world in his coat pockets and leaves his troubles behind.
But trouble has come to the Wilder Family Campground and Pine Lake, where a family of loons is trying to build a nest. Someone is out to harm the loons. Is it the bully with a chip on his shoulder? The irritable camper with a shady past? Or the publicity-seeking reporter? It’s up to the boys to figure out who, why, and how to stop the culprit—before it’s too late.”
Wight adds that Cooper is right about owning a campground. “The hours are long, the chores are many, and the season is short (May 1st to Columbus Day). Imagine having one hundred families for company seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day! But we meet so many interesting people in a summer and Dave and I work side-by-side, from home and office, with our kids underfoot. As my son, Ben and daughter, Alex grew, they began working with us too. It really is a family business.
I must say I enjoy my young campers the most! They are so full of wonder. They bring me interesting things all the time, like the dripping fish they’ve just caught, a flower they want to know the name of, turtles, frogs, salamanders, and once, what we think was the jaw bone of a young deer.”
You’ll find Cooper and Packrat: Mystery on Pine Lake by Tamra Wight at Islandport Press for $16.95.
To learn more about lakefront properties for sale on Lower Range Pond, click on the green box above.
To learn more about the lakes of Poland, Maine, check out the blog links below.
The Range Ponds of Maine – Chain of Three, Nesting Bald Eagles, Quality Fishing
Poland, Maine Abounds in Clear Views and Clean Lakes

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