‘Cady and the Birchbark Box’ Wins Michigan’s State History Award
Sharon M. Kennedy featured “For the Love of Books” podcast
Moose Willow Mystery review by U.P. Book Review

Moose Willow Mystery begins with a suspicious death in a game-processing meat locker at the fictional village of Moose Willow. A mysterious woman makes an appearance at choir practice. Janese’s mother forces her way into the lives of George and Janese challenging their privacy and sanity. Janese joins Bertie, a…
The Book Commentary reviews Attorney-at-Paw by Diane Wing
Deborah Frontiera on For The Love of Books Podcast
Portland Book Review on Mikel Classen’s “True Tales: The Forgotten History of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula”
YA Book Central reviews “Cady and the Bear Necklace”

What worked: The book features modern-day Indians living in Upper Michigan and the importance of preserving their heritage. Cady takes a 20-minute bus ride to attend an Indian school even though a public school is located only minutes from her home. Her father isn’t knowledgeable about their tribe’s history but…
Reader Views reviews Honor the Earth by Phil Bellfy

Reviewed by Megan Weiss for Reader Views (06/2022) Phil Bellfy has collected together numerous insightful, instructive, and magnificently written essays in “Honor the Earth: Indigenous Response to Environmental Degradation in the Great Lakes.” This collection serves multiple purposes: 1. To call direct attention to how western capitalist initiatives have been…
Midwest Book Review on Jon C. Stott’s “Summers at the Lake”

Carolyn Wilhelm’s Bookshelf Jon C. Stott delightfully described the many joys of lakeside living with the unchanging activities of summer. Deb Le Blanc’s many photographs are stunning, enriching the text. Readers will feel like they are right there at the cabin next to the author. Stott says calendars are not…
Midwest Book Review on Mikel Classen’s True Tales: The Forgotten History of the U.P.

Review by Carolyn WIlhelm for MBR Pioneer days conjure up romantic, sentimental ideas of simple living and being close to nature. However, the truth also included lawless, rugged, difficult times. Native Americans and those from Europe mined, traveled, worked, logged, and sailed Lake Superior’s frontier wilderness amid uncivilized criminals, kidnappers,…
Alex the Shadow Girl reviews Cady and the Birchbark Box
Jon C. Stott interview on For The Love of Books

Summers at the Lake is a delightful collection of essays centered around the author’s beloved “Little cabin in the Big Woods” beside Crooked Lake in the Upper Peninsula. The humorous and meditative essays, that read like prose poetry, track the progression of the seasons. Stott aims to evoke for readers…
Michigan in Books reviews U.P. Reader Volume #6

U.P. Reader: Bringing Upper Michigan Literature to the World Volume 6 Edited by Deborah K. Frontiera and Mikel B. Classen. It’s always a good day when this annual compendium of poems, short stories, memoirs, history, sparkling essays, and humorous pieces turns up in my mailbox. The U.P.’s rugged landscape, semi-isolation, long…
“Michigan in Books” reviews “Honor the Earth” by Phil Bellfy

Honor the Earth: Indigenous Response to Environmental Degradation in the Great Lakes edited by Phil Bellfy. Review by Tom Powers, Michigan In Books This book of updated essays grew out of an environmental conference at MSU on Earth Day, 2007. The essays, as the subtitle suggests, are responses by Native Americans…
Michigan in Books reviews Classen’s True Tales: The Forgotten History of the U.P.

True Tales: the Forgotten History of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula by Mikel B. Classen. Review by Tom Powers, Michigan in Books Even Michigan natives who know just a little about the Upper Peninsula are aware of how unique it is geographically and historically. It is a beautiful, wild, rugged, sparsely populated peninsula full…
Author Summer Porter pens A Mouse Tail on Mackinac Island

Illustrated by Maggie Chambers, this delightful “tail” of the Mouse family honors the magic of Mackinac Island with all its little nooks and crannies. From the famous fudge to the handsome blonde dock porter Robert, the brand new book brings alive the scenes from the island. Speaking directly from the…
Author Mikel Classen digs out lost stories in ”True Tales” from the U.P.

Digging deep into the past, U.P. author & historian Mikel Classen uncovers hidden stories in his newest release “True Tales- The Forgotten History of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.” Stories of piracy, lost gold mines, the origin of the Copper Boom, profiles of people of note, Starvation on Isle Royale, and one…