CFDL hosts author visits

CRYSTAL FALLS — The Crystal Falls District Community Library arranged a special event for the third-sixth graders at Forest Park, featuring two authors discussing their books with the students. Each student received a copy of the book.
    The project was funded by a grant from the John E. Force Forestry Education Fund. About a month before the speakers visited Forest Park, CFDL Director, Evelyn Gathu and Force education fund board member Nancy Hronkin-Force distributed books to the students ahead of the author visits.
Larry Buege spoke about his book “Chogan and the Gray Wolf” to the third- and fourth-grade classes.  This book is the first installment in his Chogan Native American series, which currently has four titles. Buege also shared Native American artifacts with the students.
Deborah K. Frontiera spoke about her book “Living on Sisu:  The 1913 Union Copper Strike Tragedy” with the fifth- and sixth-grade classes. The book highlights a violent strike against the mining companies of Houghton and Keweenaw Counties during the summer of 1913, as told through the journal entries of a 12-year-old girl whose father is one of the strikers.
The book received the Purple Dragonfly Book Award first place for historical fiction. Frontiera dressed in a period costume of that time.
“The Crystal Falls District Community Library would like to thank the John E. Force Forestry Education Fund for their generous help in sponsoring the author visits with Larry and Deborah, and for the purchase of 150 books that were distributed to the students,” Gathu said. “It was wonderful to be able to bring the books up to the students, and then to come back later and enjoy the authors talking to the students about their work.”