Hmmm: M the Humdinger is an interactive and intergenerational story about love and friendship across difference. Hmmm is available in hardcover (11″ x 8″) and as an online Flipbook with narration and humming soundtrack.

Dorothy Lander illustrates her botanical musical story with collages crafted from pressings of flowers, leaves and evergreens, moss and mycelium, gathered from the gardens, meadows and verges of northeastern Nova Scotia, from Mi'kma'ki, the unceded ancestral lands of the Mi'kmaq. You will meet M

whose special gift of humming calls her readers to cherish and protect Nature. She invites us to hum along with her and follow her humlines into the in-between places and everyday tensions of human nature and human healthcare. Watch for the Hmmm signs to hum along with M.

With every Hmmm M transports us through sound and image into Nature's labyrinths and invisible portals. Alongside the pansies that represent M's family and playmates, you will bow to M's siren call and dance with her humming companions— bees, dragonflies, hummingbirds—into the secret spirals of the honeysuckle and the morning glory. Suspended in this healing limn, prepare to float in the beauty of multi-varied Nature. In these precarious times, M models for us how we can turn to the more-than-human world to sustain our connections to Mother Earth and empower our empathy for each other.

The book is about why M keeps humming, because she belongs to nature, then M becomes harmony and humming to the world.

Ethan, age 7, Antigonish, Nova Scotia

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I was delighted to hear so many aspects of humming, one of the most neglected and at the same time, one of the crucially important for all human being's vocal activities, woven into the story so ably! 

Introducing this story to our small listeners can have profound importance to them, as humming comes from unimaginable depths of our evolutionary prehistory, originating millions of years earlier than our speech. Deeper evolutionary roots naturally mean a more effective connection to human emotional life. Humming can do magics in creating emotions, transferring emotions to others, connecting us to nature. And all this natural wisdom is presented wrapped in a delightfully engaging story.

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I have never come across anything quite like this before. It is illustrated with the most wonderful plant collages, I especially love the ones at the back of the book where the plants and insects are named. However, the best thing of all is the therapeutic benefit of humming along, it was both enjoyable and relaxing. This would be a great book to read alongside a younger reader, you would certainly have plenty of fun...