Birchbark House, The

Amazon.com

Readers will be riveted by the daily life of this Native American family, in which tanning moose hides, picking berries, and scaring crows from the cornfield are as commonplace as encounters with bear cubs and fireside ghost stories. Erdrich--a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa--spoke to Ojibwa elders about the spirit and significance of Madeline Island, read letters from travelers, and even spent time with her own children on the island, observing their reactions to woods, stones, crayfish, bear, and deer. The author's softly hewn pencil drawings infuse life and authenticity to her poetic, exquisitely wrought narrative. Omakayas is an intense, strong, likable character to whom young readers will fully relate--from her mixed emotions about her siblings, to her discovery of her unique talents, to her devotion to her pet crow Andeg, to her budding understanding of death, life, and her role in the natural world. We look forward to reading more about this brave, intuitive girl--and wholeheartedly welcome Erdrich's future series to the canon of children's classics. (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson

Book Description

Nineteenth-century American pioneer life was introduced to thousands of young readers by Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved Little House books. With The Birchbark House, award-winning author Louise Erdrich's first novel for young readers, this same slice of history is seen through the eyes of the spirited, 7-year-old Ojibwa girl Omakayas, or Little Frog, so named because her first step was a hop. The sole survivor of a smallpox epidemic on Spirit Island, Omakayas, then only a baby girl, was rescued by a fearless woman named Tallow and welcomed into an Ojibwa family on Lake Superior's Madeline Island, the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker. We follow Omakayas and her adopted family through a cycle of four seasons in 1847, including the winter, when a historically documented outbreak of smallpox overtook the island. Readers will be riveted by the daily life of this Native American family, in which tanning moose hides, picking berries, and scaring crows from the cornfield are as commonplace as encounters with bear cubs and fireside ghost stories. Erdrich--a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa--spoke to Ojibwa elders about the spirit and significance of Madeline Island, read letters from travelers, and even spent time with her own children on the island, observing their reactions to woods, stones, crayfish, bear, and deer. The author's softly hewn pencil drawings infuse life and authenticity to her poetic, exquisitely wrought narrative. Omakayas is an intense, strong, likable character to whom young readers will fully relate--from her mixed emotions about her siblings, to her discovery of her unique talents, to her devotion to her pet crow Andeg, to her budding understanding of death, life, and her role in the natural world. We look forward to reading more about this brave, intuitive girl--and wholeheartedly welcome Erdrich's future series to the canon of children's classics. (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson

Customer Reviews:

Wonderfully Insightful Narrative of Native American Life Early in This Century.......2007-07-26

This sweet, tender, sometimes humorous book, chronicles a year in the life of Omakayas, a seven year old girl who lives with her tribe on an island near Lake Superior. The book is divided into four main sections, each relating to a season of the year, just as the Native America daily life is based. Through Omakayas, children learn as they read about how she helps build a birch bark house, how she does her chores, and many other important details of Native American life. This makes the book especially invaluable for the fifth grade Social Studies curriculum. Many Native American words are used throughout this book, but this is done in a manner which makes their meaning apparent. There is even a glossary for these words in the back of the book. Children will love this book as Omakayas makes friends with animals and deals with feelings about her family, loss, fear, happiness, and contentment, as well as other feelings familiar to the young reader.

half and half.......2007-03-02

We had to read the Birchbark House for a 7th grade class assignment. I thought this book was kind of interesting, because it had some funny parts and some sad parts in the middle of the story. In the beginning it was really boring. Sometimes it's hard to understand because they used a lot of Indian words but they provide a glossary. I think thee book could use some more funny and violent parts to get people interested to read more. I gave this book 3 stars because it was an o.k. book. It was kind of boring in the beginning but it got a lot better. It needed more funny parts. It was a good book but not one I would have picked. I would recommend this book to high schoolers, but they have to have a little Indian in them to understand you must like: sad, boring, exciting, and funny to enjoy this book.

1847 from the Perspective of an Ojibwa Child.......2006-04-28

The Birchbark House (originally published in 1999) is the story of a year in the life of a seven-year-old girl and her Ojibwa family, living on an island in Lake Superior in 1847. The book was written by Louise Erdrich, herself a member of the Turtle Band of Ojibwa (former name: Anishinabe). The Birchbark House takes place during the same time frame as Little House on the Prairie, and the two books share certain similarities. However, The Birchbark House illustrates that time frame from the perspective of the Native Americans, who fear being pushed ever Westward by white people. It includes many Ojibwa words and customs, and Ms. Erdrich does a wonderful job of conveying the sense of harmony that the Ojibwa share with their surroundings.

The Birchbark House is told from the point of view of young Omakayas (Little Frog), so named because her first step was a hop. She lives with her parents (when her father isn't away working as a fur trader), her grandmother, her older sister Angeline, and her two younger brothers, Pinch and Neewo. As the book begins, the family is moving to their summer fishing camp in a birchbark house by the lake. The reader quickly comes to know Omakayas. She is bright and quick. She admires and envies her beautiful older sister, and adores her baby brother Neewo. Pinch, on the other hand, is the bane of her existence, and we see that sibling rivalries easily transcend cultural backgrounds. The characters of Omakayas' entire family are realistically drawn.

At first, this book seems like a pleasant, easy read, with descriptions of berrying and scaring away crows from the corn, and harvesting rice. Soon, however, Erdrich begins to deal with larger issues, related to the encroachment of the white people, the dreaded small-pox, and the possibility of starvation during the harsh winter. I was stunned by how bleak things became, relative to the early joyfulness. But in the end, the book offers hope.

I listened to this book on MP3, and thought that the narration was excellent. The Native American voice of the grandmother, in particular, was quite compelling. And I'll remember the voice of the family's pet crow for quite some time, squawking out "Gego, Pinch".

I think that this would be a perfect companion book for anyone reading the Little House books, showing another side to the story. The Ojibwa words should also lend themselves well to read-aloud for younger kids. The book is targeted to middle grade readers, probably up to about 7th grade. However, because there are sad parts to the book, I would strongly recommend that parents read the book themselves, too. Without being heavy handed about it, The Birchbark House opens the door to discussions about how Native Americans were treated during the 1800s, what constitutes a family, survival, and respect for elders. And it's also fun, too! Really, it's a wonderful book, and I'm glad that I finally got around to listening to it. I highly recommend it.

This review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on April 27th, 2006.

2 Thumbs up.......2005-09-29

Interesting piece of literature to do a multicultural lesson if you are a teacher.

If not, then it is great to familiarize oneself with the Natives of the land.

A Very Good Read!.......2005-09-26

The Birchbarck House was a fun quick read. I needed it for a Native American class and the book was a wonderful and factual sorce for information on North East Native Americans! I would say that this is a good read for anyone who wants an interesting read along with the historical backround!

Average customer rating:

A monument of a nature photography collection
Just saw his show in Duluth
Superior Images of Lake Superior
Unmatched natural splendor portrayed by peerless technique
Some of the finest landscape images ever captured

Lake Superior Images
Craig Blacklock
Manufacturer: Blacklock Nature Photography
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Photo Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0963499106

Customer Reviews:

A monument of a nature photography collection.......2006-11-13

I went on an adventure-road trip from Grand Portage to Sault Ste. Marie along Superior. I saw this book in a bookstore in Houghton. Once I opened it I couldn't put it down even in the store. Craig Blacklock is a stupendous photographer. His subject is landscapes and still-lifes in nature. There aren't images of cute animals or nice text on the side. What there are, are images of nature and landscapes.

There are images here that will blow you away. They jump off the page -as to color, subject matter, and the interplay of colors and textures through running water, ice, light, fog and rain. With many of the images, it's these motifs all at the same time. I have about 5 dozen "coffee-table" travel photography books of various places, in English, German, and Finnish. This is one of the best I have if not the best. Other really good ones are any book by Sepp Schnuerer (try amazon.de) or Russ Heinl (try amazon.ca) or a series called "Kaunis Suomi" (Finland) if you can find it. Anyway, Craig is simply one of the absolute best of the genre of nature-landscape photographers, period.

If there were a "5 star +" rating in a genre, this gets it.

Just saw his show in Duluth.......2002-08-24

Greetings. Just returned from Duluth and saw an exhibit of his photos: very large and some are pretty incredible. The book is worth it. While a few of the images are sugar-sweet,"awe-inspiring" typical pretty but omni-present sunset orangy-pinky shots, others are really pretty exceptional. Pictures of just the water surface; picture of sky-water, vertical, darker greened-bronze colors - a real collectors item, fab. shot. If you can buy any of his original work, do it now. Get to Duluth.

Superior Images of Lake Superior.......2002-06-20

How many superlatives can I heap on this "coffee table" size compilation of Craig Blacklock's stunning photographs? Let me count the plates: there are 154 - taken at various times of the year, while journeying by kayak around Lake Superior. Each "chapter" is a segment in the journey and each plate is attributed to a point on the map. My favorites: plate 77, "Small island east of Rossport, December, 1985; and plate 94, "Devil's Chair (center island) Lake Superior Provincial Park,(Canada,) July 1991.

There's a message in these beautiful photos and essays. We must preserve natural balance. As Linda Benedict-Jones says in the Introduction: "...One of the specific wishes of Blacklock... is that the remaining undeveloped lake shoreline be kept for open access. When he silently glides for months on end around the periphery of the lake, he does it with the hope that his pictures will convince others to appreciate the lake as he does. Lake Superior is simply too profound as a spiritual resource to be guarded by a privileged few. Should these last open stretches be developed, they will forever be out of reach by the general public. We have learned precious little from the examples set for us by the Navajo (Dineh), the Dakota and the Anishinabe. We all know that Native Americans lived in harmony with the earth and believed that land could be neither bought nor sold since it belonged to all. Perhaps it is not too late to apply their wisdom to relatively small, yet hugely important, areas of land bordering the Great Lakes. Perhaps these Blacklock photographs will help preserve public access to Lake Superior's shores, as certain photographic efforts of his 19th Century predecessors helped to convince (the U.S.) Congress to establish national parklands of the Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons and others." Pass it on!

Unmatched natural splendor portrayed by peerless technique.......2001-09-27

In a roughly 8 year period, the author made several kayak trips along various parts of the Superior shoreline, hauling photographic equipment along and immersing himself in those wild, unspoiled scenes so spectacularly portrayed in the 154 plates that appear in this book. The results are well worth every penny of the 40-odd bucks this book costs, and then some. As a fellow photographer of nature, I can attest to the way one can use ground glass and film to convey his deep appreciation -- yes, even a spiritual bond -- with the outdoors as God made it. Blacklock's collection of 4x5 format images (with one 35 mm slide thrown in) of the Big Lake is not only visually vivid, but spiritually moving in a way few other published photo collections can perform.

Nowhere have I seen water, rock, ice, forest, fog and sun so splendidly blended and starkly contrasted at the same time, across an entire plate set. [Plate 33 is the most stunning portrayal of ice and sky together which I have ever seen -- National Geographic's Arctic photos included -- and easily in my top 5 favorite photographs of all time.] Most admirably, nowhere in any of the photos appears a man-made object that I could see. The author takes his efforts a step further by fully revealing his techniques -- right down to the camera, film and tripod brands, and his CMYK post-processing in Photoshop (not to alter, but instead to clean up, the imagery).

Having been all around Lake Superior, its rugged vastness revealed to my eyes but only feebly captured on film by comparison, I am in awe of the job Blacklock has done. The sky, rocks and waves there have such a rich story to tell; and this book masterfully allows that story to begin. It makes me determined to return someday, camera again in hand and Blacklock's methods in mind, to get far removed from the tracks of people, and to experience Superior at its raw, unrestrained best.

Some of the finest landscape images ever captured.......1998-12-22

From a photographer's view, this book contains many beautiful images found in Northern Michigan and Canada. The colors are impressive, the composition is both thoughtful and precise. I wish I had just a small portion of the authors talent and technique.

Average customer rating:

Depressing
This book took me out on the water with the author!
big thoughts on a big lake
Spirtual: Yes; Kayaking: Maybe
A Spiritual Awakening

Deep Water Passage
Ann Linnea
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0671002821

Customer Reviews:

Depressing.......2007-08-05

I admire this woman for the undertaking, kayaking around Lake Superior. But the descriptions of downpours, thick fog and cold water 24/7 was as depressing as her thoughts of her lost friend. Beautifully written, this book is not for the joyful-at-heart as it touches on a subject we all must face with time: the passing of a loved one and mid-life doubts.

The book worked because as the journey moved on around the lake, Ann described the boulders, the lichen, the flora and the immediate surroundings, all which were backdrops to her thoughts.

There was a distinctive difference in the wilderness between the Canadian and American sides of Lake Superior that she detailed along the way. Fewer but more interesting people were found on the Canadian side and some of the shore descriptions were so detailed I could smell the water and trees.

But there were times I fast-forwarded to get away from the depressing parts (when she talked about old times with her dead friend) and read more of the adventure of the trip, as she and her partner amassed miles, met up with friends or strangers along the shore, built a campsite for the night, etc. That she was able to finish the entire circumference is in itself amazing, not because she did it (she is afterall an endurance athlete) but because of the strong demons she had to fight inside.

I recommend this for people who love the seas, lakes, kayaking and pushing oneself to ones physical limits.

This book took me out on the water with the author!.......2004-09-19

I couldn't put this book down! I was there with every storm, every breathless moment of this incredible journey! I was exhausted when I finished this page-turner strictly from the adventure standpoint, but the emotional journey which parallels the physical is equally compelling and I found the author's honesty to be refreshing and comforting. This is a beautiful book to read and re-read when your own life's journey makes you wonder if you're on the right path and it makes a wonderful gift as well!

big thoughts on a big lake.......2004-09-05

Linnea's book is one of only a handful of kayaking books really worth dipping into. Her prose and purpose are conveyed perfectly to the reader. Both kayakers and students of water will enjoy this work. Only Chris Duff's book comes close to matching it for creating lingering memories. Both works figure strongly in my book which reviews outdoor water recreation - Deep Immersion: The Experience of Water. Linnea writes with passion and enjoys getting wet and immersing herself in Lake Superior's coasts. As Thoreau wrote " That part of you that is wettest is fullest of life" (quoted from Profitably Soaked: Thoreau's Engagement With Water; Green Frigate Books, 2003).

Spirtual: Yes; Kayaking: Maybe.......2003-09-01

I picked up this book expecting it to be a book about not only a woman finding herself and understanding the place where she was in her life better but also a book about kayaking around Lake Superior (a trip I'm about to embark on next spring). I was not disappointed by the Spiritual nature of the book (even if it was a bit too New Agey for me) but I was disappointed by the lack of good kayaking stories (other than the obligatory toughness of the trip type stories). I was also surprised by how "unexpectedly harsh" the author found Lake Superior and the lack of real knowledge of the lake she possessed (especially since she lived on the shores of the lake in Duluth, MN). Anyone preparing to make this trip should have been better prepared for the fickleness of Lake Superior and anyone who actually lives on the lake should have known this wasn't going to be your summer camp paddling trip. Like many other reviewers, I did find her whinning a bit much at times. BUT overall I found this book enjoyable, touching at many points and made me anxious to start my trip at Sault Ste. Marie in June. (Picky-Nicky note here: This town is called "The Soo" by us native Michiganders and not "The Sioux" as the author spells it in the book..it is a local shortening of Sault Ste. Marie pronounced "Soo Saint Marie", not named after the Indian tribe)

A Spiritual Awakening.......2003-07-04

The day after her 43rd birthday Ann Linnea (and her brother-friend, Paul) begin circumnavigating Lake Superior by kayak, a 1200-mile spiritual and physical journey of 65 days. In order to complete this passage, and move onto the next phase of her life (which includes leaving her husband of 21 years), the author struggles to overcome physical and emotional limits while battling raging seas, bitter winds and freezing temperatures. Her desire to understand the changes she needs to make lead her on a search for life-affirming answers, and ultimately allow her to find purpose and meaning in her life. The insights she shares enable the reader to bear witness to her transformation as she faces self-doubt, life-threatening danger and exercises her choice to live. A marathon runner and cross country skier, Linnea is no stranger to the elements, no idle pursuer of physical challenges. Her life lessons are learned through her body. In the summer of 1992, Ann Linnea became the first woman to circumnavigate Lake Superior. Her experience with "She-Who-Is-The-Biggest" changed her life. The telling of that experience is both moving and meaningful.

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An Inferior Novel
Wonderful Discovery
Beautiful visual images +Disturbing situations
I'm Hooked
Cold and Wet

Superior Death
Nevada Barr
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0399139168

Book Description

The inaccessible wreck, Kamloops, has rested at the bottom of Lake Superior for nearly seven decades, the bodies of its ill-fated crew eerily preserved in the frigid waters. But now there is an extra corpse on board -- a newly slain interloper suspiciously dressed in 1920's clothing.

It is Anna Pigeon's jobas a ranger with the U.S. National Park Service to help protect wild and lonely places from civilization's corrupting touch. Now a bizarre mystery held firmly in a Great Lake's icy grip is drawing Anna into a nightmare of greed adn cold-blooded murder. And what she finds waiting beneath the surface could prove fatal.

Customer Reviews:

An Inferior Novel.......2007-09-20

One of the many problems from which this book suffers is a lack of regional and cultural context. As someone who has lived in the Keweenaw Peninsula, I was looking for descriptions or insights the author might offer regarding the area and its people, but these were conspicuously lacking. Obviously, the author had spent some time in the park, but her portrayal was such that Isle Royale seemed to be surrounded by cardboard cut-out locales. Even though Houghton (the location of the park headquarters) is visited, referenced in numerous ways, and even made the location of a lesbian community of interest to sorting out the sexual preferences of various characters, it remains a cipher -- a nearby blank canvas upon which the author can paint some plot conveniences, but nothing else. Readers will learn more about New York City from this book than they will about western Upper Michigan. Likewise, the people and culture of the Keweenaw Peninsula are pretty much absent from the book, unless one counts the moment where a character -- written sympathetically at that point -- compliments the protagonist for having a capacity for introspection she finds absent in those from the Upper Peninsula.

A second major flaw is the over-use of convenient details and timing. So many coincidences just happen to occur during the short period of time covered by the book that the word "implausible" seems inadequate. I realize this is fiction, but even science fiction writers have recognized for decades that good writing demands reasonable limits upon what an author can do within a particular genre or universe. A novel consciously written and marketed as an action thriller, for example, may stretch credibility in order to move from one over-the-top sequence to another, but since that is the point of the exercise, a reader can buy the book expecting to accept the story on its own terms. This was not the case with "A Superior Death", which I purchased expecting to find a mystery novel set on Isle Royale, not a tale that incorporated so many conveniences as to depart the mystery genre entirely and gravitate into Matthew Reilly territory.

I will describe the following examples in fairly generic language, for the sake of those who still want to read the book. A) One of the most obvious cases of laughably far-fetched convenience is the coincidence by which the protagonist catches on to the killer. B) Two characters possessing a crucial teddy bear originally appeared to have been deliberately written as odd for the purpose of making them interesting, yet after a couple of ludicrous coincidences by which the protagonist is saved, it became obvious that their oddity was also the author's cover for not having to come up with a rational explanation for the series of events. C) A character accidentally chokes to death while engaged in an activity that was, for the character, fairly routine; furthermore, this death was not related to the flow of the story, but conveniently occurred at the end of the book in order to provide a warped kind of closure (since, as other characters make unsubtly clear, the reader was being manipulated into being satisfied with this person's death). D) A missing-person subplot is stretched across the entire length of the book -- long after the official disinterest in locating her was plausibly sustainable, particularly given that the murder victim's wife claimed she hadn't initially reported her husband's disappearance because she thought he had gone to be with the other woman in question.

The identity of the killer wasn't too hard to guess, simply because there was no other justification for the prominence of the person in the story, and the author's attempts to cause the reader to consider other suspects were so ham-handed, the discerning reader is unlikely to take the blind alleys seriously. One of those dead-ends involved two diving partners of the murder victim; the three of them refer to themselves as the Three Musketeers. The problem is that the murder victim was nicknamed after d'Artagnan, who was not one of the Three Musketeers. Yet the author uses this very identification to allow the protagonist to link a knife to the dead man due to the initials "d'A". Clearly, if the author had identified the victim with the actual name of one of the Three Musketeers (Athos, Porthos, and Aramis), any mark on the knife would probably have been either less distinctive or more obvious, depending on the number of letters used in the inscription. So, in order to artificially create a mystery-within-a-mystery, the author has to wrongly identify d'Artagnan as one of the Three Musketeers, and then have at least four characters (the dead man and his partners, as well as the protagonist) consistently follow the same mistake. That's as ludicrous as writing a mystery about a murdered sports buff in which one of the puzzles requires the deceased, his friends, and the detectives to brazenly and consistently identify a famous football player with the wrong team.

Finally, while the author offered some details regarding the underwater condition of the Kamloops shipwreck, it (like the Keweenaw) appears to exist merely as a blank canvas for the author's own purposes. The story of the sinking of the Kamloops, including the deaths of those who came ashore and the subsequent discovery of the bottle containing the note written by Alice Bettridge, would have added a lot of background and depth to the events of the novel, even if treated only briefly. Instead, "A Superior Death" seems analogous to a book in which characters deal with wreckage or artifacts from the Endurance, without any overview of the Shackleton expedition. I suspect the reason the author passed up such a golden opportunity is that the motive she creates for the murder requires her to designate the captain of the Kamloops as engaging in criminal activity during the fatal voyage. If there were historical evidence to support such a charge, then the events of "A Superior Death" could not have happened (because there would have been no secret), and it otherwise seems rather unseemly to impugn a historically-identifiable dead man in such a way. It seems reasonable to guess the author and her publisher felt they could not describe the real crew, their story, and their names, and then go on to claim that the lawbreaking dead captain mentioned in the story was a fictional construct bearing no resemblance to the real person, living or -- in this case -- dead. Regardless of the underlying decision-making process, the resulting work manages to ignore the fascinating human history behind the disaster, while appearing to taint the memory of one of its victims.

Those looking for books about Isle Royale should instead consider the excellent titles by Howard Sivertson (Once upon an Isle: The Story of Fishing Families on Isle Royale and Tales of the Old North Shore: Paintings and Companion Stories), Tom and Kendra Gale (Isle Royale: A Photographic History), Peter Oikarinen (Island Folk: The People of Isle Royale), Jim DuFresne (Isle Royale National Park: Foot Trails & Water Routes), and Daniel Lenihan (Shipwrecks of Isle Royale National Park: The Archeological Survey), among others. Everyone else merely searching for a good read should simply look elsewhere.

Wonderful Discovery.......2007-06-29

Nevada Barr was recommended to me by Sara Paretsky and I agree - her stories are great. The characters are rich and the background interesting. The story is fast paced and intriguing with a nice twist at the end. Good read.

Beautiful visual images +Disturbing situations .......2007-06-28

This books gives a wonderful, vivid discription of Isle Royale National Park. I knew nothing about diving around ship wrecks and found this book entertaining and informative.

The story is fairly mysterious but I felt the solution was forced. The connection between Molly PIgeon's client and the wine in the ship wreck was quite a stretch - but this IS fiction.

I was very disturbed at the resloution of the pedophile problem. The character, Patience, was brazen enough to murder, to dive in dangerous waters and leave a trail of crimes yet she lacked the real courage to bring a true pedophile to court. I can see this happening but I can't see others sitting back and letting this happen.

I also found the Hawk/Holly incest situation disturbing; of course this does happen. I saw it coming so it seemed out of character for the clever Anna to hook up with Hawk and I was dissapointed this transpired.

I'm Hooked.......2006-12-12

I read the first Anna Pigeon book, Track The Cat, and I was somewhat intrigued. After reading A Superior Death I am hooked on Navada Barr's character, Anna. I could feel her clausterphobia and her fear under the water. Anna and her friends are quirky and entertaining. This book is an easy and enjoyable read.

Cold and Wet.......2006-10-03

This time our heroine, park ranger Anna Pigeon, is stationed on an island in always-cold Lake Superior, and one-too-many bodies show up two hundred feet down on a 1927 shipwreck. Anna, no lover of the deep and a bit claustrophic at that, must dive on the wreck to investigate, then dive again to resolve. Brrr. Even in the heat of a midwest summer, this novel gave me chills.

Nevada Barr is a national treasure. Having now read all her books, I can't wait for her next one.

Gales of November: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Average customer rating:

Gales Of November by Robert J. Hemming
A real yawner.
The most famous ship-wreck of the mighty Great Lakes!
Facts, Figures and Creative License...?
Hemming's Voyage to Oblivion

Gales of November: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Robert J. Hemming
Manufacturer: Contemporary Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 0809259214

Customer Reviews:

Gales Of November by Robert J. Hemming.......2006-07-05

Out of all the books written about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, this one remains by far the best. Not only is the book filled with stunningly accurate details about the ship, it reads like a gripping novel. I especially admire the way the author chose to piece together the facts that he knew to recreate the story of the ship's actual sinking. Most other books I have read on the Fitz have been afraid to tackle such a challenge. Robert Hemming's compelling story will leave you on the edge of your seat and sometimes even reduce you to tears. This one is hard to put down and a must have for any maritime enthusiast.

A real yawner........2006-03-16

With all due respect to the families of the men lost on the Fitz, this book is a real yawner. But look on the bright side of things -- if you sufffer from insomnia, you've just found your cure!!! Lots of passive verbs, cliches, irrelevant trivia. yaaaaaaaaaaawn.

The most famous ship-wreck of the mighty Great Lakes!.......2006-02-21

I really enjoyed this book. It's an exciting re-telling of the famous Edmund Fitzgerald ore-freighter that sank in the east-end of Lake Superior during a horrific storm in November of '75. I first heard about it and the famous Gordon Lightfoot song that describes it when I was just a little kid, and have been interested in it since. But after reading this exciting book, I quickly became even more fascinated and I look forward to exploring the whole disaster a little more. If you liked the movies "Titanic" and "The Perfect Storm", or have always had an interest in famous ship-wreck stories, you will love this book. Although I rated it a 4, it's really in my opinion a 4.5. That lacking half point is only due to a slight over-abundance of mini-biographies of the Captain and his crew, but atleast you develop a more emotional connection to the entire story as a whole than you would if it was just fact-based. You may read from other reviews that the last few hours of the ship's demise was a fictional description from the author due to a lack of actual survivors, but in my opinion, that in no way takes anything away from the story-line, because the fiction in regards to what actually happened in those last hours is based on some found evidence to support it to a certain degree. An over-all great book!

Facts, Figures and Creative License...?.......2004-12-06

Hemming has written some excellent accounts of disasters on the Great Lakes (see "Ships Gone Missing"), and this book has some very good qualities.

The covering of the history of the Fitz, and that of her crew is well done, and the descriptions of the character bring them to life.

There are also interviews with surviving family members and those who came across the Fitz both before and during the final trip.

Hemming goes with what appears to be the main theory regarding the boat's sinking, that she took on more and more water and dove into a huge wave, unable to recover.

One of the problems I do have is the creative license Hemming takes in trying to recreate what happened on the Fitz, especially as the vessel sank. He did this as well in "Ships Gone Missing," but here I'm not sure if it was such a good idea.

To have people doing and saying certain things is impossible to know that they did anything like that. I can see where Hemming tried to place the men where he thought they'd be, but it's hard to say.

Some of it was a bit melodramatic, but for the most part this is a good book with many facts on the boat and what may have happened.

Frederick Stonehouse as also written a very good book on the Fitz, including testimony and reports from the Coast Guard and the Lake Carriers Association.

Hemming's Voyage to Oblivion.......2004-05-11

The Gales of November was purchased on the strength of the information I could access through the Amazon pages and online discussions I held at Encylopedia Titanica. It was a purchase well made.

As the Edmund Fitzgerald crosses Lake Superiror we are given background into the running of these kind of ships and one by one the names of the 29 are given lives as Mr Hemming shares the story of their backgrounds. As events worsen to the terrifying and rapid conclusion I am made to identify with these men which makes those few minutes even worse.

Mr Hemming resorts to informed artistic licence to give us asense of what may have taken place, and to my thinking he does it well. Some may not like this style which is also used in the film and book Perfect Storm but it is necessary if we are to create a narrative of the events that led up to the sinking.

I understand that a film is being considered. If so It will make frightful viewing especially for anyone who makes the living on the sea.

Thank you Mr Hemming, Gordon Lightfoot, Amazon and all who made this book possible.

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Lakeland Boating Ports'OCall Lake Superior Cruise Guide
O'Meara-Brown Publications Inc.
Manufacturer: O'Meara-Brown Publications Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
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Lakeland Boating's Lakel Huron Ports `O Call, Vol. 3

ASIN: 1890839086

Book Description

Lake Superior Cruise Guide is a four color spiral bound book for use as you cruise the beautiful freswater of Lake Superior. Aerial photographs of each harbor with current listings and important information for the overnight cruiser. O'Meara-Brown Publications,Inc., has published in this same format a cruise guide for each of the great lakes and has had tremendous feedback praising the quality and usefulness of each guide to the great lakes boater.

The Edmund Fitzgerald: Song of the Bell Edition 1. (True Story)

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Retelling the doomed voyage of a ship

The Edmund Fitzgerald: Song of the Bell Edition 1. (True Story)
Kathy-Jo Wargin , and Gijsbert Van Frankenhuyzen
Manufacturer: Sleeping Bear Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1585361267

Book Description

Leaving port from Superior, Wisconsin, on a sunny November day, the crew of The Edmund Fitzgerald is looking forward to a routine crossing of deep Lake Superior.Heading for Cleveland, the giant transport ship is loaded with ore that will be used to build cars. But disaster is building in the wind as a gale storm begins to track after the great ship.This suspenseful retelling of the last hours of the doomed vessel pays homage to all sailors who traverse deep waters, in fair skies and foul.

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Retelling the doomed voyage of a ship.......2003-11-17

Knowledgeably written by Kathy-Jo Wargin and expertly illustrated by Gisjbert Van Frankenhuyzen, The Edmund Fitzgerald: The Song Of The Bell is the suspenseful picture book retelling of the doomed voyage of a ship and the tragic end for the 29 men aboard it. Told with compassion and historical accuracy, this true story concludes with the retrieval of the ship's bell from the ocean depths and the placing of it in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, Michigan, so that the loved ones of those who died with the sinking of that great ship could have a place to go and remember their cherished memories of those who were lost.

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Way too much ego about Capt Paquette! Don't buy!
Here's the real reason
A Captain with a ego so large no lake boat could carry!!!
Not what everyone would like to hear
The night the Fitz went down

The Night the Fitz Went Down
Hugh E. Bishop , and Dudley Paquette
Manufacturer: Lake Superior Port Cities
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 0942235371

Book Description

The year 2000 marks the 25th Anniversary of one of Lake Superior's unsolved mysteries. On November 10, 1975, a "mega-storm" over Lake Superior sank the ore carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald at the east end of Lake Superior. Although many theories have been expressed on the cause of this catastrophe, one widely held but rarely spoken reason has never been published -- until now. As the last living captain of an ore boat that also sailed through the worst of that storm, Captain Dudley Paquette relates his harrowing memoir of those hours leading up to the Fitzgerald wreck and of the dangerous search afterward. In the process, the reader gains deep insight into the mind of Great Lakes captains and what might have been the situation in the wheelhouse of the Fitzgerald as the big lake crashed across the decks. The real cause of the wreck might finally be known.

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Way too much ego about Capt Paquette! Don't buy!.......2007-05-14

Okay, I really wanted to learn about the Fitz going down, but instead this book is almost entirely about the life and ego of Captain Paquette, who was in charge of another ship that same night. The book goes on and on about how fabulous this one Captain was, how he was the world's best at everything. It is so over the top that I could hardly finish reading it. There are letters commending Paquette on just about everything, and his ego and arrogance make this book very hard to read.

As for understanding the Fitz and what happened, there is some helpful information here, but I certainly would have liked to know a lot more. Like the stories of those crew members, etc.

In addition to the fact that this book does not stick to the title whatsoever, I actually think it is poorly written too. There are a lot of long run-on sentences, and a lot of quick shifts in topic. Plus, much of the text is just a copy of the author's interview with Captain Paquette, and doesn't have much in the way of style to it.

I would not recommend this book at all.

Here's the real reason.......2003-02-05

To all the folks who talked about the ego effect of Paquette I have to say this. He was out there that night and made all the right decisions. He loaded along side of the Fitz, watched her clear the harbour, listened to her radio broadcasts and knew they were going to get into trouble. In my estimation he also has the real reason she sank. I have read and reread this book at least 6 times and belive it is the best read ever on the subject. If you want to know why the Fitz sank, get this book. As for Captain Paquette, my hat is off to him. On this night in particular, it wasn't him who had the ego problem. He brought the Sykes into safe harbour.

A Captain with a ego so large no lake boat could carry!!!.......2002-12-05

I have read this book and found it very informative. The book is mostly about a ego driven Captain who has never made a mistake. Once you get to page 80 or so, the book is very well written and actually talks about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Up until this part of the book the Captain tell endless storys about how great he was as a Captain. He does have great evidence on what happened to the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Not what everyone would like to hear.......2002-08-28

Sure to create controversy, Paquette gives us a new insight into the tragedy. With all due respect for the victims of the tragedy,from his candid assessment of the actions taken by McSorley in his choice of routes on the final voyage to his assertion that McSorley should have demanded investigation of the "wiggling thing" are interesting,at the least. Possibly the authors place more confidence in Burgner than may be warranted, but at any rate it is a real departure from the usual depictions which portray the event as 100% freak accident. I hope he is wrong in his insinuations, but again, a much different perspective for good or for ill.

The night the Fitz went down.......2001-04-15

Overall, the book was not too bad. I do nearly agree with the theory presented regarding the reason the ship sank, as it is certainley more believable than the Coast Guard's reasoning. The one thing I did not care for is the "arrogance" I felt was displayed by Capt. Parquette. Although I did not mind reading about his experiences, he talked (wrote?) like he was all knowing, and could never do wrong. I sailed on the Great Lakes for a bit as an engineer, and I still get up there once a year to do work in March, so I have met some Captains here and there, and most seem pretty reasonable. However, I do not think much of this guy. Nonetheless, a good book regarding the ship itself, and it does present some interesting facts. So, in closing, I would recommend it if you are into the history of this ship, and would like to know as I why it went down.

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Another Erdrich Novel for Young Adults
More Please!
Newbery? This one merits your attention.
The rest is silence
A REMINDER OF THE BEAUTY AND BOUNTY OF NATURE

The Game of Silence
Louise Erdrich
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0064410293
Release Date: 2006-06-13

Book Description

Her name is Omakayas, or Little Frog, because her first step was a hop, and she lives on an island in Lake Superior. One day in 1850, Omakayas's island is visited by a group of mysterious people. From them, she learns that the chimookomanag, or white people, want Omakayas and her people to leave their island and move farther west.

That day, Omakayas realizes that something so valuable, so important that she never knew she had it in the first place, could be in danger: Her way of life. Her home.

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Her name is Omakayas, or Little Frog, because her first step was a hop, and she lives on an island in Lake Superior.It is 1850, and the lives of the Ojibwe have returned to a familiar rhythm: they build their birchbark houses in the summer, go to the ricing camps in the fall to harvest and feast, and move to their cozy cedar log cabins near the town of LaPointe before the first snows.

The satisfying routines of Omakayas's days are interrupted by a surprise visit from a group of desperate and mysterious people. From them, she learns that all their lives may drastically change. The chimookomanag, or white people, want Omakayas and her people to leave their island in Lake Superior and move farther west. Omakayas realizes that something so valuable, so important that she never knew she had it in the first place, is in danger: Her home. Her way of life.

In this captivating sequel to National Book Award nominee The Birchbark House, Louise Erdrich continues the story of Omakayas and her family.

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Another Erdrich Novel for Young Adults.......2006-12-28

The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins, 2005); Where the Great Hawk Flies by Liza Ketchum (Clarion Books/Houghton-Mifflin, 2005).

Considering the depiction of Native Americans in books, so much has changed since I was the age of our twelve-year-old daughter.

In several new books for young readers, the narrative vantage point has been very decisively shifted to place native characters in the point-of-view position, in the center of events instead of serving as "colorful" parts of the scenery. I've recently read aloud to our daughter Lillian two new young adult novels with Native American themes, Louise Erdrich's The Game of Silence (HarperCollins, 2005) and Liza Ketchum's Where the Great Hawk Flies (Clarion/Houghton-Mifflin, 2005).

At about Lillian's age I read James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, and I strongly recall the ache I felt in response to Cooper's elegiac, grandly romantic evocation of the "noble" Chingachgook, who appeared to be in Cooper's view inseparable from the strange and sublime new American landscape. As an outdoorsy suburban Boy Scout, I couldn't help but see woodsman and trapper Natty Bumppo as an exemplary white ambassador to the Indians.

Along with Cooper's portrayal of close companionship between an immigrant frontiersman and aboriginal chieftain, I imbibed from that book a desolate, lump-in-the-throat sense of traditional Indians as an endangered species, remnants of a society too fragile to withstand the onslaught of the Europeans' well-armed civilizing force.

In the popular media, depictions of Native Americans continue to wobble or careen between positive (dignified, sensitive, stoic, ecological) and negative (brutal, aloof, lethal, voracious for alcohol), yet in contemporary literature for children and young adults, the native characters (as is also true of African Americans) are now usually portrayed in far more complimentary ways. While in all earnestness, some authors create stories that seem too didactic in seeking to compensate for the stereotypes of the past, these new books of Erdrich and Ketchum offer writing for younger readers that is enjoyable as well as challenging, and historically complex.

Erdrich is the author of nine novels for adults, two collections of essays, and three collections of poetry along with two children's books and a previous young adult novel, The Birchbark House (nominated for a National Book Award in 1999), to which the new novel The Game of Silence is a sequel.

It's not easy to summarize the differences between the volcanically talented Erdrich's books for adults and those for younger readers. The former are more erotic and more violent, with a fabulous flexibility about conventional definitions of "realism," and an intensely metamorphic use of language, with surges of imagery born in dreams and hallucinations. Yet in other respects Erdrich's way of crossing the page is unmistakable, in any genre.

As Lillian pointed out when I asked her about what makes a good young adult novel, the most obvious difference is that the narrator -- the active, witnessing consciousness of a story's events -- is usually a child or teenager. The tenor and tempo of the narrator's voice is therefore different, and in a successful young adult novel the voice is convincing, evocative and flushed with personality, not an adult's idea of how younger people sound.

Erdrich's young adult books are never simplistic as they explore tremendously difficult experiences, including European-borne epidemics, which decimated native communities throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century. It's certainly noteworthy that when writing for younger readers Erdrich never resorts to a "special" tone or style, like certain adults who adopt condescending mannerisms when talking to kids. The Birchbark House and The Game of Silence are as serious in scope and as beautifully written as any reader of Erdrich's adult books would hope.

As with its predecessor, the setting of The Game of Silence is a mid-nineteenth-century Ojibwe community on an island in the lake Gitchi-Igaming, eventually known as Lake Superior. In both books, the main character is Omakayas (or Little Frog, "because her first step is a hop"), who is idiosyncratic and multi-dimensional, like classic literary girls such as Brink's Caddie Woodlawn, Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, Wilder's Laura and Mary, Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Betsy, and Alcott's March sisters in Little Women.

A substantial pleasure in Erdrich's Omakayas books is their portrayal of daily life among the Ojibwe, who are related in language and in their seasonal subsistence-cycle (summertime agriculture, autumn fishing and gathering, wintertime deer hunting, and spring maple-sugaring) to the Abenaki people of "Wabaniak" or northern New England and Quebec, our own region. While Omakayas and her family are beginning to see the ripple effects of changes in the east, for instance in the arrival of native refugees fleeing colonial seizure of their traditional homelands and the horrific diseases that precede the settlers themselves, readers are given at least a glimpse of the complicated societies that existed prior to the coming of Europeans.

Even more so than in The Birchbark House, in The Game of Silence Erdrich incorporates Ojibwe words and phrases, deftly translating them within her English sentences and also including a wonderful glossary that also can be read through for its own delights. As described in another of her recent books, Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country (National Geographic Directions, 2003), Erdrich has been painstakingly learning her ancestral language, and the steady presence of another language in The Game of Silence changes the sound, the texture, and the perspective of the story.

Another ingredient in classic literature for younger readers is illustrations, and like The Birchbark House, The Game of Silence features Erdrich's lovely pencil drawings, accompanying her image-rich prose as a visual counterpoint.

More Please!.......2006-11-12

the continuing saga of omakayas and her family draws you in and keeps you close. Several of my 5th graders read the book together and immediately asked to read the sequel. When told that it hadn't yet been published, they were dashed, and anxoius for its release. I find it poetic and beautiful, and they are hooked by the story. A teacher's dream...

Newbery? This one merits your attention........2006-03-12

This is the sequel to The Birchbark House. Like its predecessor, it transpires in the Ojibwe tribe's mid 19th century home on one of the Great Lakes and on the family of Omakayas, the middle child of three `siblings'. (Siblings is like that because of what happened in Birchbark House.) Also like Birchbark House, this one is a charming blend of historical fiction and clear, lovingly drawn, appealing characters. A young reader will benefit greatly from seeing the westward movement of white people through Native American eyes, and do that within the context of a most enjoyable story with endearing characters and emotionally accessible events, plus they'll get a smattering of Ojibwe language and its culture. Well worth giving to your middle school reader.

The rest is silence.......2006-01-22

No one becomes a children's librarian in the hopes of someday striking it rich. We all do it for our separate, twisted, obscure little reasons that probably have their roots somewhere in our youth. I did it partly because I realized that I wasn't cut out to be an archival librarian (the moment of inspiration came when my husband pointed out that I'd set my coffee cup down on my conservation textbook) and partly for two little words: readers advisory. I love recommending good books to good readers. I love recommending good books to bad readers. I love recommending good books period. And if I were to calculate the most frequently cited question I get on the children's room floor it might be, "My child loves the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. What else can you recommend?". Now until now my instinct was to grab "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich and thrust it into the waiting patron's arms. Now, unfortunately, I have a choice to make. "The Birchbark House" is good, yes. But its sequel, "The Game of Silence" is even better. How can I go about not recommending the sequel before its predecessor? I can't. Just the same, "The Game of Silence" does not absolutely require that "The Birchbark House" be read in order to understand the following story. It stands on its own beautifully and it shouldn't be any wonder to anyone that it garnered itself the 2006 Scott O'Dell Award for historical fiction. It undoubtedly deserved it.

Having survived the smallpox plague of 1847, Omakayas still mourns the loss of her little baby brother, but keeps her spirit strong. Good thing too. A band of raggedy homeless people have arrived in the girl's Ojibwe camp and her good tribe takes them in immediately. Amongst the people is a baby, its mother long gone, and the perfect remedy for the hole in Omakayas's family's heart. Word has reached the tribe that the white settlers are forcing all Native Americans to move farther west despite a treaty made years ago. To verify the truth behind this rumor and to see whether it was the whites who broke their word or the Natives, four men are sent from the camp to discover the truth. In the time that it takes the men to get back (the span of one year) we watch Omakayas's adventures and traditions. As time goes one, however, it becomes clear that change is imminent and that Omakayas must allow herself to go into the woods to seek the spirits that have given her so much knowledge in the past. What she sees may make all the difference in how she lives the rest of her life.

Though I'd enjoyed "The Birchbark House" I was reluctant to read its sequel immediately. No matter how well read a children's librarian might be, it's very difficult to voluntarily read books in a genre that you yourself avoided like the plague as a child. In my case, historical fiction. I decided not to read this book simply because I'd read the first one and probably knew exactly what to expect with this sequel. Then it started appearing on all the Best Books of the Year lists. And then Roger Sutton (editor of Horn Book Magazine) started singing its praises to the skies. About the time people started murmuring the words "Newbery" and "Game of Silence" in the same breath I knew I had to give in and read it. Thank God for that. Having honed her skills already on everything from picture books to adult novels, Erdrich has sketched out a perfect tale. Characters grow and change and know one another better by the story's end.

I've always had a weakness for Erdrich's pencil illustrations, thinking them as essential a complement to her stories as Garth Williams's were to the "Little House" books. In this story Erdrich uses them to their fullest effect. Pinch, Omakayas's mischievous little sprite of a brother, is rendered here in all his round spiky-haired cheerfulness. Though he annoys those he loves past all endurance, you're just as enamored of the little guy as his doting mother and frustrated (but amused) siblings. There was one picture in the batch that I found a mite bit confusing, of course. In the chapter "Fish Soup" we see a picture of Twilight (Omakayas's cousin) gutting a fish with her hair in two pigtails above her head. Oddly enough, she seems to be wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt of a particularly modern design. It's a cute little image but if the shirt isn't made of 100% cotton then Erdrich probably should have made that clearer. As it stands it seems like a very odd discrepancy in the midst of otherwise historically accurate pictures.

In every novel there's an odd little moment here or a word there that strikes the reader as funny. For me it was the moment when Old Tallow, the warrior woman who hunts with a pack of trained dogs at her side, says that when she fell down a cliff she, "pitched ears over butt all the way to the bottom". Butt? Interesting word choice there. Still, it gets the message across. And for every little quirk in the tale there are three times as many small instances of writing perfection. As Old Tallow has a rotted finger chopped off and scalded closed (it sounds more violent than it actually plays out) Omakayas sees only a single tear fall from the woman's eye. Later, the girl, "wished she'd caught that tear. It was rare. Probably, it was the only tear Old Tallow had ever shed". Even better are sections that discuss Pinch's fish catching skills. Though his traps look like beavers' nests and his decoy the oddest shaped fish anyone has ever seen, time and again Pinch catches more fishies than anyone else. "The fish that Pinch carved was apparently the most delicious-looking fish in the world". In this way Erdrich weaves that ever necessary thread of loving humor into her books. You can be meaningful all day and bore children to tears or you can dot the text with funny and very real moments of childhood and end up with an even better book. Erdritch opts for the latter.

Here's what I love about the stories of Omakayas. They're actually interesting to kids. There are great snowball fights, snow houses, contests, and examples of kids playing in realistic ways. At the same time they're historically accurate and though they never downplay the horror of colonization, neither do they wallow in misery and woe. These books show characters proud of their ancestry who are precious to their readers because they seem so very real. People complain all the time about how depressing good books are to kids sometimes (ala "The Bridge to Terebithia"). Fine. Let's have them all read "The Game of Silence" in school instead. You'd be hard pressed to find a book half as wise and a quarter as amusing. I could probably go on and on and on about it (which is a relief after reviewing some books that take all my energy to find words to describe) but I'll just leave you with the knowledge that this is undoubtedly one of the best books to come out in years and years. A bloody brilliant piece of work.

A REMINDER OF THE BEAUTY AND BOUNTY OF NATURE.......2005-09-08

When it comes to stories of the Ojibwe people, it seems to this reader/listener that Louise Erdich writes not only with her pen but also with her heart. A native of North Dakota, Erdrich is of German-American/Chippewa descent, and she is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. Thus, her novel "The Birchbark House," which introduced young Omakayas, glistened with insight and admiration for characters who lived in the 1850s.

The same may be said of "The Game of Silence," beautifully delivered by voice actress Anna Fields.

Now, of course, Omakayas is older and she has learned a great deal as she goes about her days among her people, all following the shifting seasons. There have been changes: a sister has found someone to love, and Omakayas becomes aware that she possesses a unique gift - her dreams foretell the future.

As the story opens, days are peaceful on a Lake Superior island. The people live in houses made of birchbark during the summer, then as the days grow cooler they prepare for harvest. When winter falls all will leave their birchbark houses for cedar cabins close to a town, LaPointe.

However, the Ojibwe's serenity is interrupted by white men who want them to leave the island, want to push them away from the land they call home.

Intended for young listeners, those in grades 5 through 8, "The Game of Silence" will not only offer them a wealth of historical detail but also a reminder of the beauty and bounty of nature.

- Gail Cooke

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A Useful Regional Geology
A wonderful treatment of a highly interesting region.

Geology Of The Lake Superior Region
Gene L. Laberge
Manufacturer: Penokean Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0972408800

Customer Reviews:

A Useful Regional Geology.......2000-07-22

The author covers the geology of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. This is helpful because the state geologies are either unavailable (Minnesota's and Wisconsin's) or over-priced (Michigan's). What's particularly welcome is Mr. LaBarge's extensive description of Pre-Cambrian developments, a period usually skipped over in a couple of paragraphs. The only disappointment is finding that, after filling over two hundred pages getting to the end of the Ordovician, he covers everything from Silurian to Cretaceous in about three pages.

All in all, though, this is a welcome addition to the non-specialist geological literature and a bargain at the price.

A wonderful treatment of a highly interesting region........1999-07-30

this book is now in print again from GeoScience Press in Tucson A

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