Depression Era Books and Giveaways!

 

Last October I published Perspective, a middle grade novel set in Duluth and Isle Royale during the Great Depression.

It's the story of a twelve year old girl who wants to grow up to be an artist. Genevieve lives a comfortable and quiet life with her mother, a high school English teacher. Their Duluth apartment isn't fancy, but it has all the modern comforts made possible by electrification and indoor plumbing.

When Genevieve's mother dies of lung cancer, her whole world comes apart. She is sent to live with her Aunt Gertrude, Uncle Edwin, and their two spoiled sons, and in spite the fact that Uncle Edwin drives a fine DeSoto and Aunt Gertrude wears a mink coat, they announce that they simply cannot keep Genevieve once they discover that they will not be able to put their fingers on her money. Aunt Gertrude buys her niece a one way ticket to Isle Royale, where she is to live with the father she's never known.

Genevieve must adapt to a much more rustic way of life. She learns to appreciate the beauty of the island even if she finds its seclusion difficult at times. But just as she's finally beginning to understand what destroyed her parent's relationship, she discovers that she may have to leave Isle Royale.
Genevieve must learn that perspective is not just a theory in art, but a way of seeing the world through the lens of forgiveness and patience.

Once Perspective was published, I intended to give away some related books. Some were resources I used while writing my own books. Others are books I came across and set aside because I thought they were similar to mine and would be of interest to my readers. 

But I forgot. Don't ask me how. Just recently I looked at one of my bookshelves and there were the books I'd intended to give away.

So here I am, months later, offering books related to the Great Depression and Isle Royale. Leave a note in the comments if you'd like me to send you one of them. And if you'd like a copy of Perspective, I can offer that, too!

Not Lucille by Mike Steele (published by Creative James Media, June 24, 2025, EAN/UPC 9781965648070) 

Ten-year-old Lucy Contento can't seem to control her impulsive behavior, blurting out in the classroom and doing things without thinking. When she's assigned to the rigid disciplinarian Miss Gillingham's Fifth Grade Class, it seems she's destined to spend every afternoon in after school detention, sitting with the teacher who insists on calling her Lucille and making her write with her right hand even though she's a Leftie. One afternoon she sneaks onto the campus of the Deefies, what the neighborhood kids disparagingly call a nearby school for the Deaf, and makes a friend of Florence, a profoundly deaf girl who doesn't mind Lucy's flaws. From there, the story of friendship and acceptance blooms. Lucy learns to advocate for both herself and for Florence as she comes to terms with the quirks that everyone has, even the straight-laced Miss Gillingham and her grumpy neighbor Mrs. Ricci. This is a sweet and empowering book that will melt your heart and give you hope. The author provides an afterword that helps today’s readers understand how very different the world was in the 1930s. The Wind Called My Name by Mary Louise Sanchez (published by Tu Books, October 30, 2018, EAN/UPC 9781620147801) Ten-year-old Margaríta Sandoval's family leaves New Mexico, where they have deep and traditional roots, to move to Fort Steele, Wyoming when her father finds a job with the railroad. She misses living among Hispanics, especially her beloved Abuelita, and feels so rootless that she fears the wind might blow her away. Margaríta meets Evangeline and is pleased to have a friend her own age, but soon encounters prejudice and misunderstanding. Things get really tense when the Sandovals learn that Abuelita might lose her land and the family's ancestral home unless they can pay off her tax bill. This lovely, gentle story is sprinkled with Spanish dichos, wise sayings that will ring true in any language. It teaches about a culture that few understand was here and thriving for centuries, and continues today. Diaries of an Isle Royale Fisherman by Elling Seglem (Published by Isle Royale Natural History Association, November 15, 2002, ISBN-13: 978-0935289138) Elling Seglem was a Norwegian immigrant, who lived in Chicago, where he worked as a photographer during the winter. He had a summer home on Isle Royale and each summer between 1920 and 1932 he fished the waters of Lake Superior. This book has reproductions of his journals, in which he tells of the hard work and simple pleasures of island living. It also includes his correspondence, much of it in newspaper-format letters sent home to his family in Chicago. Seglem's sense of humor and attention to detail make his writing a delight to read, and the drawings, cartoons and historic photographs really add to our understanding of what life was like for him and the other people who lived on the island. Diaries of an Isle Royale School Teacher by Dorothy Simonson (Published by Book Concern Printers, December 1996, ISBN: 0-9352289-02) In 1932, Dorothy Simonson got a job teaching the six children of the Johnsons, a family who lived on Isle Royale. Her students were between 18 and 5, and she taught them in the school house in which she and her young son, Bob, also lived. This book is the transcribed diary of heer eight months on the Island, and in it she shows how she faced both the joys and the hardships of an isolated winter with honesty and humor. A lot of the details in Perspective—things like the name of the boat on which my character travels and how long it took, what people ate and what they missed from the mainland—come from this book.  Island Folk: The People of Isle Royale by Peter Oikarinen (Published by University of Minnesota Press, 2008, ISBN: 978-0816653362) This book is a collection of stories and photographs about the people who made a life on Isle Royale, both before it became a National Park and after. These interviews share the voice and recalled memories of the people who've lived and worked in a beautiful and sometimes deadly environment.