Review by Deborah K Frontiera This children’s picture book, Up North Across the Bridge, depicts a lovely memoir of many vacations in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The author states in her dedication that her mother “packed up five children, trekked up north and filled our summers with endless joy and adventures…
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Jennifer Bonn’s book “What Kaitlyn Finds in the Lake” is a delightful story of a young girl who explores the lake area and finds various forms of nature. The main characters are Kaitlyn and her mother. Bonn is from Georgia. The lake in the book could be…
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Johnny Storm’s Upper Peninsula in the Sun: Hooray for Camp Days portrayed the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (U.P.) as an enjoyable place to spend time outside, sight seeing and having fun with family. The main characters were the author’s family who spent time at the Keweenaw Peninsula and…
Review by Sharon Brunner Linda M. Kramer and Carol L. Schultz offer a fun and entertaining story about puppies and dogs in their book “Nibble Nosers Can’t Drive” and portray dogs’ endearing behaviors. The term nibble noser was derived from a dog’s and puppy’s need to smell and chew. As…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera What can you do with a wordless picture book? Oh, let me count the ways! First, a parent or other adult can let a child, or children make up the story, and there can be many stories going on in the progression of the illustrations….
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Midwest goodbyes can be heartfelt and drawn-out experiences for a young girl who longed for her bed in Nikki Mitchell’s “Ellie and the Midwest Goodbye” book. Her parents had many family members and friends who cared about them and had many stories to share. Dressed for winter…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera Mouse Tail I: ISBN 978-1-61599-654-4, Modern History Press 2022, PB ret. $18.95, children’s picture book In this picture book for the four to eight-year-old crowd, author Summer Porter introduces us to a family of mice in a fun, fantasy ride to Mackinac Island. The mice…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera Filled with metaphor, reading like a prose poem, the author of Who Am I? speaks through a mother and her young daughter to teach the youngster about the interconnectedness of life on Earth. The child asks who she is and the mother answers with a…
Review by Sharon Brunner John Owens shared an enchanting story One Winter Up North about a family’s winter adventure in northern Minnesota at the Boundary Waters area. The story is told by captivating illustrations. The family first travels to the location where they set up camp. A father, mother, and…
Review by Sharon Brunner In the book A Mouse Tail on Mackinac Island written by Summer Porter a family of mice travels to Mackinac Island in search of a new home. Father Mouse is known for his love of cheese. Mother Mouse wore a white apron and sings lullabies. Max…
Review by Donna Winters Dance Your Dance, Sing Your Song, a True Story By Dorothy Paad with Heather Picotte, illustrated by Matthew Forgrave. It was the first day of orientation at Northern Michigan University and it was a total zoo. With those words, Dorothy Paad opens Dance Your Dance, Sing…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera On the first read, A Halloween Scare in Michigan is a cute, rhymed with good rhythm children’s picture book aimed at the four-to-eight-year-old set. It has that sing-song type rhyme that kids love and rolls off the tongue with ease. Not all rhymed books achieve…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera Even though this children’s picture book was originally published in 1946, this new edition of the original still has a great message for children today. Nils, a first generation American whose parents immigrated from Norway, receives a handmade pair of socks from his grandmother who…
Christ Child Helps Calm an Anxious Lamb Review by Deborah K. Frontiera There are thousands, maybe millions, of “Christmas” books out there—but most of them focus on the secular aspects of the holiday, rather than Christmas as the birth of Jesus. Among the books with Jesus as the center, it’s…
Lively Retelling of a Biblical Standard Review by Victor R. Volkman The Hungry Kitten’s Tale (Rivershore Books), written by Elizabeth Fust and illustrated by Mary MacArthur, is an imaginative fresh take on the old biblical story of the “loaves and the fishes” from the Gospel of Matthew. In case you…
Children Can Appreciate Their Own Unique Talents Reviewed by Victor R. Volkman Jacqueline Briggs Martin’s Bim, Bam, Bop, and Oona (University of Minnesota Press, 2019) is a large-format, hardcover book lavishly illustrated by Larry Day. The seemingly nonsense words of the title are the character names of Indian Runner ducks…
A Fish Story as Big as the Great Lakes Itself Review by Victor R. Volkman Parents and youth with a love for nature should check out A Great Lakes Odyssey with Louis and Louise by Stephen T. Schram (Orange Hat Publishing, 2018). Although this book is technically the second in…
