The Maple Staple Brings Five Distinctive Titles to the 78th Frankfurt Book Fair

At the 78th Frankfurt Book Fair, The Maple Staple returns for its third consecutive appearance, bringing five distinctive titles to M esse Frankfurt from October 7–11, 2026. Featured at Hall 5.1, Stand D86, the collection spans poetry, children’s literature, family history, and works exploring unconventional theories about the natural and scientific world.

Although the five books differ widely in genre and subject, they share a common interest in discovery. Their authors draw inspiration from mountains, forests, family traditions, historic places, and questions about the natural world, turning personal experiences and observations into works that encourage readers to look at familiar subjects from different perspectives.

The collection begins with the mountains in Alan V. Goldman’s “Reflections on Mountaineering: A Journey Through Life as Experienced in the Mountains (Fifth Edition, Revised and Expanded) with Addendum: 2024.” The book features 148 narrative-style poems written in rhyme, prose, and blank verse. Using mountaineering as both a setting and a source of inspiration, Goldman reflects on the challenges of climbing and the broader experiences of life.

The poems explore the awe and fear of climbing alongside themes of luck, fate, preparation, discipline, awareness, success, defeat, and the passage of time. Through these experiences, Alan V. Goldman considers how the lessons of mountaineering can relate to everyday decisions and challenges. A graduate of Horace Mann School, Harvard College, and Harvard Law School, Goldman practiced law for many years before retiring and devoting more time to mountaineering and poetry. His work is available at mountainreflections.art, where selected poems can also be heard in recordings of his own voice.

An entirely different kind of exploration unfolds in Anne Ward Crocker’s “Close Friends’ Cathedral Adventure,” where the woods give way to the grand surroundings of the Washington National Cathedral. The story follows Peat, a toad, and Paul-Paulette, an earthworm, who live beneath the roots of their friend Christy, a Christmas fern. Their peaceful woodland life is disrupted when they are dug up and transported with other plants to the cathedral for its annual Festival of Flowers. When Peat proves too large to remain hidden beneath Christy’s fronds, he is discovered and placed in the Garth, an enclosed garden near the cathedral’s stairs.

Separated from his friends, Peat sets out to find them, leading him through the cathedral and into an unfamiliar world filled with remarkable architecture and new plant and animal companions. Along the way, young readers are introduced to architectural features found throughout the building, with a glossary providing helpful explanations of the terms encountered in the story. Drawing on her longstanding appreciation for nature, native plants, birding, and the Washington National Cathedral, Anne Ward Crocker creates a story that brings together friendship, exploration, nature, and architectural discovery.

The focus then shifts from childhood adventure to family memory in “El Duelo (The Duel)” by Eduardo Saldaña Cantú, a work rooted in life in the rural Rio Grande Valley during the early twentieth century. Set along the riverbanks of what is now known as the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, the book is based on “cuentos,” or oral accounts through which families passed down their experiences, values, and sense of identity. Many of these accounts were never committed to paper, making recollection and imagination essential to keeping them alive across generations.

The book focuses on Don Juan, Cantú’s grandfather, remembered as a larger-than-life man whose strength, faith, and loyalty commanded the respect of those around him. His experiences offer a view of a close-knit community that faced hardship through mutual dependence, family commitment, and shared principles. Through Don Juan and the residents of the “El Capote” ranch, Cantú depicts a way of life shaped by the river and the few resources it offers. A geneticist by profession, Eduardo Saldaña Cantú eventually pursued his long-held goal of documenting the people, experiences, and traditions he remembered from his childhood, transforming his family’s “cuentos” into a written record for future generations.

The collection takes a markedly different direction with two books by Ruth Leedy Carr, “Polar Hole Light in Europe’s Clouds” and “Tipping Point for a Hollow Earth: How Asimov and Sagan Backed My Prophecy of a Polar Hole Shift to Europe.” Both works present Carr’s interpretations of planetary phenomena and her theories concerning hollow planets, polar openings, planetary instability, and possible changes to Earth’s axis.

In “Polar Hole Light in Europe’s Clouds,” Carr examines unusual light observed near the poles of Mars and challenges conventional explanations for the phenomenon. She connects these observations to her theories about a hollow Mars and a hollow Earth. Her other book, “Tipping Point for a Hollow Earth: How Asimov and Sagan Backed My Prophecy of a Polar Hole Shift to Europe” develops these ideas further. Carr focuses on what she describes as a possible shift in the location of a polar opening and considers its potential effects on Earth.

Ruth Leedy Carr traces her interest in these subjects to her studies in journalism, psychology, and sociology at Indiana University, as well as research she began in 1980 involving Edgar Cayce’s prophecies and hollow Earth theories. The two books present Carr’s interpretations and arguments, offering readers a perspective on planetary phenomena that differs from conventional scientific explanations.

Taken together, the five featured titles demonstrate a range of subjects, experiences, and ideas, offering readers different ways to engage with the world around them. Their varied themes give the showcase a broad scope, bringing together stories and works shaped by experience, imagination, history, and inquiry.

For more information about The Maple Staple’s Frankfurt Book Fair 2026 participation, visit https://themaplestaple.com/fbf2026/.

Contact Information

Emmanuel Laguardia

Director

Bookside Press

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