Jessie Haas is the author of SUGARING, a picture book that captures the warmth and work of a family maple-sugaring operation. In a March 2016 post on this blog, she reflected on the book's origins and the enduring pull of the sugaring tradition.
Haas wrote SUGARING twenty years before that 2016 post — a book born from firsthand experience. She and her husband, Michael, have been sugaring on their Vermont farm for decades, tapping trees, gathering sap, and boiling it down in their own sugarhouse. The story follows a girl named Nora and her grandfather as they move through the steps of making maple syrup, with a team of workhorses helping to gather the sap.
In her blog post, Haas described the sensory world of sugaring: the hiss of steam, the sweet smell drifting from the sugarhouse, the way sap runs clear and cold from the tap. She noted that the book's illustrator, Jos. A. Smith, visited her farm to sketch the horses, the equipment, and the landscape — grounding the illustrations in real observation.
Haas also shared what sugaring has taught her about patience and attention. The season is brief and weather-dependent — warm days and freezing nights make the sap flow. She wrote about the quiet companionship of working alongside animals, the satisfaction of a finished batch of syrup, and the way the sugaring tradition connects her to generations of farmers who came before.
For readers who want to explore more of Haas's work, her books range from picture books to middle-grade novels, often rooted in rural life, horses, and the natural world.