We combed our library collection for books about beautiful Lake Michigan. Here is a reading list to get your started. If you have any additions, please let us know! You can always askwater aqua.wisc.edu.
Children/Teen
The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn AndersonMaggie and her parents move to the small town of Gill Creek just as the last summer visitors are leaving and the first body of a murdered teen is found floating in Lake Michigan, in this mystery/romance set in a wintry Door County. (Age 12 and older)
Under My Nose by Lois EhlertChildren acquainted with artist Lois Ehlert's books realize she loves color, flowers, color, birds, color, being out of doors, color, the changing seasons, color....This slim little book allows a peek at some of Ehlert's childhood family pictures. Color photos show Ehlert at work in her studio and outside in Milwaukee, where she lives near Lake Michigan, and much more. The steps involved in creating a book are shown and summarized. They learn about Ehlert's interest in Latin American folk art, her advice to young artists and writers, and her love of children and books for children. Organized like other books in the same series, Under My Nosecontains an inviting format, easy reading and an inside view of a popular artist and author. (Ages 7-12)
Mystery of the Fog Man by Carol FarleyThirteen-year-olds Larry and Kip have their hands full untangling the mysterious sudden appearances and disappearances of the Fog Man and solving the theft of a large sum of money from the ferry Wolverine. This mystery, set in Ludington, involves the car ferries which crossed Lake Michigan.
The Day the Great Lakes Drained Away by Charles Ferguson BarkerExplore what would happen if all of the water drained from the Great Lakes and what their lake floors might look like under all that water.
Papa’s Mechanical Fish by Candace Flemming"Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a fish?" Papa—who is based on the real-life inventor Lodner Phillips—creates a submarine that can take his family for a trip to the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Good Night Wisconsin by Adam Gamble and Mark JasperA bedtime board book that takes children both on a tour of Wisconsin places and attractions (the State Capitol, Lambeau Field, the Wisconsin Dells, and others) and through the course of a day – from morning on a dairy farm to evening at a lighthouse on the shores of Lake Michigan. (Ages 2-5)
Great Ships on the Great Lakes by Catherine M. Green, Jefferson J. Gray, and Bobby Malone Between them, Wisconsin and Minnesota have more than four thousand miles of Great Lakes shoreline. This volume explores their rich maritime history, from the Native Americans who fished, hunted, and gathered plants in birchbark canoes and dugouts, to the sailors and lighthouse keepers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who kept goods and people moving through the region. A final chapter on underwater archaeology brings the story up to the present day, describing the methods used to locate, explore, and conserve the Great Lakes' many shipwrecks. With archival and contemporary photographs, a timeline, and lists of resources and places to visit. (Ages 8-12)
Potawatomi Indian Summer by E. Williams OldenburgChildren enter a cave along Lake Michigan and find themselves 300 years back in time.
Shadow of the Wolf by Gloria WhelanIn 1841 thirteen year old Libby and her family begin a new life on the shores of Lake Michigan, where her father works as a surveyor for the Ottawa Indians and Libby is reunited with her Indian friend Fawn.
The Secret Keeper by Gloria WhelanSixteen-year-old Ali comes face to face with murder and kidnapping during what promised to be a pleasant summer on Lake Michigan.
Lake Michigan – Fact Finders Land and Water: Great Lakes by Anne YlvisakerThis book, part of a series on the Great Lakes, features information on how Lake Michigan was formed as well as chapters on early people, important industries, pollution and other problems, and how the lake is used today. Gr. K-3.
Adult
The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas by Jerry DennisOutdoorsman Jerry Dennis' ode to the Great Lakes entertains and informs with the tale of his six-week schooner voyage across lakes Michigan, Superior, Erie, Huron and Ontario. Anecdotes from his childhood along the shores of Lake Michigan are intermingled with the natural history of the lakes and the effects of humans upon them. The author's love and respect for his subject will delight others with an interest in these inland seas.
Discovering Great Lakes Dunes By Elizabeth Brockwell-Tillman and Earl Wolf.The sand dunes along the Great Lakes are the most extensive freshwater dunes in the world. Most of the dunes are along the Michigan shore, but some are in Wisconsin. This book combines beautiful color photos of the dunes plus information about their ecology.
Great Lakes Circle Tour: Reliving History Along Lake Michigan's Circle Tour Route By Bob Schmidt and Ginger Schmidt.Even those who have lived in the Midwest all of their lives will discover new, fascinating tidbits about the cultural and historical background of the Lake Michigan area in the Schmidts' guide to circumnavigating this Great Lake.
Castle Nowhere Lake-Country Sketches By Constance Fenimore WoolsonCastle Nowhere is Constance Woolson's collection of stories set for the most part in the Great Lakes, in particular northern Lake Michigan and Lake Huron near Detroit. Several themes inhabit Woolson's writing: an environmental consciousness and concern with landscapes; an awareness of the complexities of race; and an abidingly careful eye for the shallowness that sometimes accompanies wealth or social pretensions. She also had a unique perspective as a woman who pioneered the use of controversial subjects---such as unrequited or misplaced passion---and methods in fiction during a time that valorized domesticity.
Schooner Passage: Sailing Ships and the Lake Michigan Frontier By Theodore J. Karamanski.Karamanski tells the stories of the men and women who sailed on the schooners during the 19th and early 20th centuries, their labor issues and strikes, the role of the schooner in the maritime economy along the Lake Michigan basin, and the factors that led to the eventual demise of the schooner.
Perimeter: a contemporary portrait of Lake Michigan by Kevin J. MiyazakiCommissioned by the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University to create an artwork reflecting on the importance of freshwater, Milwaukee-based photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki embarked on a two-week, 1,800-mile drive around Lake Michigan. He traveled its perimeter, through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, to produce what he calls “a contemporary portrait of Lake Michigan.” Miyazaki set up his portable studio on beaches, in parks, on boat docks, and in backyards, photographing those he met along the way. From residents, environmental scientists, and artists to a Native American water rights advocate, surfers, and commercial fishermen, Lake Michigan holds a powerful place in the life of each. Many shared their thoughts with him on why this body of water is important to all.
Some like it Cold : a Sheboygan Surfin’ Safari by William Povletich"Some Like it Cold" is the story of two brothers who surf Lake Michigan off the coast of Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
Western Great Lakes Lighthouses: Michigan and Superior By Ray Jones.More than 60 lighthouses are included in this volume. Archival and recent photographs bring the history and significance of each lighthouse to life
Lost & found: legendary Lake Michigan shipwrecks by V. O. VanHeestAccomplished diver and author Valerie Van Heest uses her extensive experience and Great Lakes contacts to allow readers the tragic sinking of legendary Lake Michigan ships. Spanning the ages of sail, steam and diesel, the book details discoveries shared with the author by some of the lake's most prolific wreck hunters.
Freighters of Manitowoc : the story of Great Lakes freight carrying vessels built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin by Tom Wenstadt"Freighters of Manitowoc" chronicles the building of freight carrying vessels in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Manitowoc was a tiny fontier town in the 1840s with river entrance on the western shore of Lake Michigan. From these small beginnings, it grew to build and deliver the largest vessels on all of the Great Lakes of the time. In the book's 356 pages, read about the builders themselves, the vessels they built, their yards, how their businesses interrelated to the town, the river, the lake and other waterways of the world.
Adult Fiction
Safe from the Sea by Peter GeyeSet against the powerful lakeshore landscape of northern Minnesota, Safe from the Sea is a heartfelt novel in which a son returns home to reconnect with his estranged and dying father thirty-five years after the tragic wreck of a Great Lakes ore boat that the father only partially survived and that has divided them emotionally ever since. When his father for the first time finally tells the story of the horrific disaster he has carried with him so long, it leads the two men to reconsider each other. Meanwhile, Noah's own struggle to make a life with an absent father has found its real reward in his relationship with his sagacious wife, Natalie, whose complications with infertility issues have marked her husband's life in ways he only fully realizes as the reconciliation with his father takes shape. Peter Geye has delivered an archetypal story of a father and son, of the tug and pull of family bonds, of Norwegian immigrant culture, of dramatic shipwrecks and the business and adventure of Great Lakes shipping in a setting that simply casts a spell over the characters as well as the reader.
Starvation Lake: A Mystery by Bryan GruleyAfter crossing an ethical line while writing an investigative series for the Detroit Times, reporter Gus Carpenter has returned to his hometown of Starvation Lake, Mich., to work for the local paper. Evidence surfaces that the town's legendary hockey coach, Jack Blackburn, was murdered. Carpenter's reopening of the case, which has personal resonance for him, shakes all sorts of skeletons loose.
The Echoes of L’arbre Croche by Donald JohnstonWhen a ship sinks off the coast of Beaver Island in Michigan, the intertwining lives of the characters unlock the mystery of the disappearance of another ship twenty years earlier, in a riveting whodunit set on the stormy waters of the Great Lakes.
Freshwater Boys: Stories by Adam SchuitemaMichigan native Schuitema's debut collection contains 11 short stories set in and around the Great Lakes in Michigan. Michigan landscapes and lakes serve as central characters in the stories. Men and boys collide in Michigan's woods, dunes and lakesides in a struggle to understand what it means to be a man. Lake Michigan and the concept of a "third coast" figure prominently in these well-written and engaging stories.
Watermarks: poems from the coast of Keweenaw by Barbara SimilaIn Watermarks: Poems from the Coast of Keweenaw, Simila provides a collection of thirty-one poems about life in Michigan's Copper Country.
Haunted Lake Michigan by Frederick StonehouseThe hauntings have reached Lake Michigan! A continuation of the Haunted Lakes series, Haunted Lake Michigan features the research of Great Lakes historian (and accidental ghostchaser) Frederick Stonehouse. In this volume, he relates the tales of lost maritime spirits and cursed ships, sea monsters, UFOs, ghostly echoes of Prohibition-era murders and a deliciously horrible host of other hauntings in, on and around Lake Michigan.
Last week, in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, we gave thanks to the Friends' of UW Madison Libraries for their recent grant to purchase books about environmental economics.
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