Writers take many approaches to telling a story.

We use words and pictures. First and third person narrators. Single and multiple points of view. Fact and fiction. There are endless ways to spin a tale.

Recently I experienced (and truly, that’s the right word for it) a marvelous story that incorporates all of the above variations and—in an unusual twist—was published in the great outdoors.

Called THE GIANT & THE HUMMINGBIRD, Guilford W. Full’s literary installation in the garden of Friend Memorial Library in Brooklin is a delight for children and adults alike.

That’s how the story begins, the third person voice is that of a retired sailor who lives on a farm in an unnamed Downeast town that bears a striking similarly to Brooklin itself.

In weatherproof pages planted on the perimeter of the Circle of Friends Garden, the reader first reads how the hummingbird was found trapped inside the sailor’s barn.

There is tension.

Then, halfway through the story, the tiny bird,writing in first person, tells the story from her point of view.

She turns out to be something of a drama queen, but being so small and vulnerable, she can be forgiven.I don’t want to spoil the tale for those who might find their way to Brooklin this summer, but I assure you the ending is happy.

Kudos to Giffy Full for inspired storytelling, and to the folks at Friend Memorial, who are always open to creative ideas.

THE GIANT & THE HUMMINGBIRD is just one example of the commitment of Maine’s library community–professionals and volunteers–to engage with their communities on many levels in order to spread the joy of reading.

Whether you’re enjoying a staycation in your own town this summer or traveling around the state, make the local library one of your destinations. You never know what amazing discoveries you’ll make there.

Brenda Buchanan sets her novels in and around Portland. Her three-book Joe Gale series features a contemporary newspaper reporter with old-school style who covers the courts and crime beat at the fictional Portland Daily Chronicle. An attorney since 1990, Brenda currently is writing a series about a criminal defense lawyer who takes on cases others won’t touch in the hometown to which she swore she’d never return. Brenda’s short story, “Means, Motive, and Opportunity,” was in the anthology Bloodroot: Best New England Crime Stories 2021 and received an honorable mention in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022. Her story Assumptions Can Get You Killed appears in Wolfsbane: Best New England Crime Stories 2023.