The Great Lakes: Stories from Where We Live

This delightful anthology conveys not only the richness of nature in the Great Lakes region, but also the importance it holds for so many of its inhabitants. Shaped by glaciers, the area has been home to diverse Native American nations, explorers, trappers, loggers, and farmers. Readers meet an Ojibwe girl born in 1777 on the shores of Wisconsin's Chequamegon Bay, spend a summer hunting for rare plants in rural Indiana, and watch the Aurora Borealis from atop 400-foot dunes in Michigan. The book is filled with adventures past and present, including the thrill of sledding the highest hill in deep winter, crossing an ice bridge above Niagara Falls in the winter of 1899, and sailing on the Rouse Simmons, a schooner bringing Christmas trees from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Chicago in 1912. Other pieces describe quicksand-filled bogs; canoe trips; fishing for walleye, carp, and pike; and encounters with moose, loons, and bears. Contributors include Margaret Atwood, Sigurd Olson, Sandra Cisneros, Edwin Way Teale, Gene Stratton-Porter, and more.