Hmmm – M the Humdinger is an interactive story for all ages about 
, a child of Nature. It unfolds as M’s humming paean to the connection between all living creatures, human and more-than-human.
M’s hum-lines trace the arc of unity with Nature and with people who are different, underscored by a chorus of companion hummers of many species—bees, dragonflies, monarch butterflies, and hummingbirds. You’re invited to hum along from the opening lines of the story: “M was a hummer. She hummed in her sleep, all night long.”
Dorothy Lander’s fable published by HARP The People’s Press includes a primer that offers all the many health-giving benefits of humming. Hmmm is lavishly illustrated with images created entirely from pressed flowers and leaves, moss and mycelium—gifts gathered from gardens, meadows and verges in the unceded ancestral lands of the Mikmaq (Mi’kma’ki, northeastern Nova Scotia).
“Introducing this story to our small listeners can offer them profound benefits, as humming originates in the unimaginable depths of our evolutionary prehistory—millions of years earlier than speech. Deeper evolutionary roots naturally mean a more effective connection to human emotional life.”
– Joseph Jordania, evolutionary musicologist, author of New Model of Human Evolution: How Predators Shaped Human Morphology and Behaviour. University of Melbourne, Australia
Hmmm is available in hardcover as well as an online audio “hum-along” Flipbook, both available through the HARP website (www.harppublishing.ca). The first 25 people who purchase the hardcover of Hmmm through HARP will receive free access to Hmmm the Flipbook.
If you have questions or comments please do get in touch directly with me: dorothy.lander1@gmail.com
is co-publisher with John Graham-Pole of HARP the People’s Press, a multi-media publishing social enterprise, dedicated to the healing arts and arts for health equity. As writer, editor, publisher, and bookseller in ‘retirement,’ I draw on the rich reservoir of a 30-year career at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia as service operations manager (1976-1995) and professor and thesis advisor in the department of adult education (1997-2007).
Posted by Dorothy Lander: dorothy@tryhealingarts.ca The talented team at This is Marketing (https://www.thisismarketing.ca/) chose a unique colour palette to illuminate
L to R Clockwise: John Graham-Pole aged 2 on Mummy’s knee with sisters Elizabeth, Mary, and Jane, High Bickington, Devon,
Posted by Dorothy Lander Once a month, John Graham-Pole and I showcase the publications of HARP The People’s Press at
Aboriginal Rock Mural Kimberley Region, Western Australia Posted by John Graham-Pole I don’t have answers to any of these questions,
