The Serpent Came to Gloucester at CAM

A page from 'The Serpent Came to Gloucester' by M.T. Anderson

Cape Ann Museum Hosts a storytime with author M.T. Anderson! An award-winning author and illustrator present a tribute to the beauty and mystery of the ocean.

It came from the sea, from the lonely sea,
It came from the glittering sea.

In a small Massachusetts fishing village in August of 1817, dozens of citizens claimed to have seen an enormous sea serpent swimming off the coast. Terrified at first, the people of Gloucester eventually became quite accustomed to their new neighbor. Adventure seekers came from miles around to study the serpent and aggressively hunt it down, but the creature eluded capture. The Gloucester sea serpent was then, and remains now, a complete mystery.

Reviving the rhythms and tone of a traditional sea chanty, M.T. Anderson recounts this exhilarating sea adventure through the eyes of a little boy who secretly hopes for the serpent's survival. The author's captivating verse is paired with Bagram Ibatoulline's luminous paintings, created in the spirit of nineteenth-century New England maritime artists. Stop by the CAM Studio after the talk to see a new mural of Cassie the Sea Serpent by Grimdrops, the Cape Ann Museum’s family-friendly gallery guide inspired by the legend.

M. T. Anderson is the author of Feed, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; the National Book Award–winning The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party and its sequel, The Kingdom on the Waves, both New York Times bestsellers and Michael L. Printz Honor Books; Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad; Landscape with Invisible Hand; and many other books for children and young adults. He lives near Boston, Massachusetts.

When: 
Saturday, October 30, 2021 1-2pm
Location: 
Prices: 
FREE
Phone: 
978.283.0455
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