Take Wing Over Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore

Here’s another lively, colorful page-turner for children. Whether on vacation or back home again, kids and their parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles will be cheering for Herschel, the little near-sighted hawk, as he overcomes a troublesome challenge to see clearly, at last, the beautiful dunes and lakes and farms below. Adults will recognize many of the iconic sights pictured, and maybe you will be able to identify another bird species or two, also.

Author Rob Ford is a writer for the Traverse City Record-Eagle, and his brother, Tom Ford, a well-known area wildlife artist. The story is lively, the illustrations appealing, and I’m happy to add that the book was printed in Michigan, too.

Hershel Takes Flight: A Hawk’s Tale

by Rob Ford, with illustrations by Tom Ford

(Signed copies available now at Dog Ears Books)

Hardcover, $16.95

An idea: I recommend pairing the Herschel book with Karen Trolenberg’s Flight of Megizzewas, the story of a Leelanau County eagle (first introduced here). 

Karen Trolenberg's story was inspired by a real eagle once resident in Omena, Michigan, and Christopher Smith beautifully captures Trolenberg's story, as the eagle flies from his nest over deer meadows, dunes, and apple orchards, all the way to the Mackinac Bridge, finally returning to the nest high above a northern Michigan's lake. Rivers and lakes, fishing and playing -- we see land and people  from the eagle's eyes, as the author's text evokes the peaceful beauty of Michigan. 

We are very proud of this Northport author!

Flight of Megizzewas

by Karen Trolenberg

(Copies signed by author available now at Dog Ears Books)

Illustrations by Christopher Smith

Hardcover, $18.85