I’ve enjoyed Tom Caverly’s books over the years, both his books for adults and his books for kids. But I think his newest book, The Ranger and the Reporter, is my favorite.

I particularly appreciate the “New England Reads” literacy project that Tim and his wife Sue have been doing since 2015, providing 157 power point programs to almost 6,000 students. They encourage literacy and learning about our natural world, and have donated over 1500 of Tim’s book, Allagash Tail’s, to 133 New England schools.

Tim served as Superintendent of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway for 18 years, and that’s the setting for this book which features a new female reporter’s interviews with a retired AWW ranger. Mixing fact and fiction, The Ranger and the Reporter is fascinating, informative, and entertaining.

And the book will give you a good understanding and appreciation of the work that the AWW staff does – from difficult and dangerous rescues to mundane clean-ups of camp sites to checking anglers to make sure they were not poaching. They hiked, snowshoed, snowmobiled, and canoed to patrol the AWW and perform their tasks.

I liked the format for this book, the neophyte reporter slowly pulling the stories out of the aging AWW ranger who is living in an assisted living residence. At first reluctantly, and then with enthusiasm, the ranger tells his tales to the reporter. And boy, what tales they are!