Reviewed by Dawn Colclasure for Reader Views (12/2022) A poetry book with a title like Chlorophyll can give one pause. What is so special about chlorophyll to write a whole book of poems about it? For Raymond Luczak, who grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, plenty can be said about…
John Burroughs’ Bookshelf Synopsis: Featuring full-color pages accessible to readers of any age, “Coats of Arms: An Introduction to The Science and Art of Heraldry” (written and illustrated by Marc Fountain) is a how and why quick-start guide that explains knighthood and nobility and royalty, what coats of arms mean,…
Winner of the Historical Society of Michigan’s book award for Children & Youth (2022) Join Cady and John Ray as they unravel a forgotten mystery… In Cady and the Birchbark Box, Cady Whirlwind Thunder solves the mystery behind a weathered journal found inside an old birchbark box. Why was the…
“This book turned out to be unlike any writing reference book I have read. Of the thirty-odd writing books in my collection, many have spoken to my identity as one who loves the written word, as a recovering perfectionist, as a person who thinks in rhythm and will rewrite a…
Today……I will be chatting with author, and artist Joanna Walitalo who will announce the details of her book giveaway of Woodburnings after the reading at the end of the interview. When did you move to the UP? And are you a full-time Yooper? Joanna Walitalo grew up in Oil City…
by Ernest Dempsey, staff writer Carnival Lights by Native American author and speaker Chris Stark won the award for best fiction book at the 2022 Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards (NEMBA). Published last year by the Modern History Press of Michigan, the novel tells the engaging story of cultural survival through…
By Ernest Dempsey- The literary treasure of Upper Peninsula (UP), Michigan, is adding a new book of short fiction, North of Nelson: Volume 1, by local author Hilton Everett Moore. Published by Silver Mountain Press, an independent press based in Covington, Michigan, North of Nelson: Volume 1 is the first…
Ann Dallman’s children’s novel Cady and the Bear Necklace by Modern History Press won the 2022 State History Award in the Children & Youth category. For the Modern History Press, the Cady series serves two main goals of the press-focusing more locally on issues in its home state of Michigan,…
By Ernest Dempsey Modern History Press is proud to announce that its title Cady and the Birchbark Box by Ann Dallman has won the 2022 State History Award in the Children & Youth category. Cady and the Birchbark Box is a novel for children, mainly in the age range 11…
Welcome back to another school year. Kennedy’s time machine will take you back to a simple era of the late 1950s. Find some time to read and reflect whether it’s on your own childhood or stories of the past passed from generation to generation. The SideRoad Kids follows a group…
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…
Review by The Book Commentary Attorney at Paw: A Chrissy the Shih Tzu Cozy Mystery by Diane Wing is a fascinating read; in turn, hilarious and heartwarming. At the time that Autumn Clarke is grieving the loss of her parents, killed in a car crash, she meets Chrissy, a Shih…
In Superior Tapestry, author Deborah Frontiera combines fiction with non-fiction to create a fun fact read for adults and children. Frontiera picked 27 artifacts from UP history and gave them personality. “The stories are told from the point of view of objects,” she said. “I had a lot of fun…
True Tales: The Forgotten History of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula by Mikel B. Claussen takes the romance out of the stories of northern Michigan. Instead, Claussen weaves a yarn of facts the way only a Yooper can. His style is approachable and very much based on the storytelling of the region,…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
About Cady and the Birchbark Box: In Cady and the Birchbark Box, Cady Whirlwind Thunder solves the mystery behind a weathered journal found inside an old birchbark box. Why was the box buried behind a deserted garage? This is the question her friend and “crush,” John Ray Chicaug, asks Cady…
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…
