One of the joys of being a book editor is that every once in a while, fortune smiles upon me, and a new author or illustrator of extraordinary talent comes into my life out of the blue.

So it was that in the winter of 2002 I received an e-mail from one Normand Chartier. He explained that he had illustrated a number of books (it turned out to be more than seventy!) but said that he summered in Maine and would like to do a project with Down East Books. I subsequently asked him to send me some samples of his work, and when they arrived I was literally staggered by their beauty and quality. Here was someone who could handle everything from Sesame Street books, which he illustrated for years under contract, to evocative portraits of the Maine shoreline that has been my home since 1978.

I immediately signed him up for two children's books, the first of which has become one of our best sellers recalling the genius of another Maine author/illustrator Robert McCloskey.

Then I said to him, “What about a book of your paintings of the Maine coast?” Apparently this had never occurred to the always modest Normand, but he quickly warmed to the idea. "My Maine" is the culmination of that conversation, and it’s everything I wanted and more.