Author Gloria Whelan To Visit Mackinac Island School

Childrens author Gloria Whelan of Grosse Pointe will visit Mackinac Island Public School Friday, September 29, to read her new book about the Mackinac Bridge and discuss writing in general. The 10 a.m. presentation is open to the public, sponsored by Mackinac Island Community Foundation.

Mrs. Whelan, a National Book Award-winning children's author, and illustrator Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen created "Mackinac Bridge, The Story of the Five- Mile Poem." The book, set in the 1950s, shares the story of a young boy whose father operates a ferry boat on the Straits of Mackinac and witnesses the building of the Mackinac Bridge. It is published by Sleeping Bear Press as part of the Tales of Young Americans series of historical fiction picture books.

Mr. van Frankenhuyzen also illustrated "The Legend of Mackinac Island."

Mrs. Whelan, a poet, said she became interested in a writing about the Mackinac Bridge when she learned that its designer, David B. Steinman, was an amateur poet. She grew up in Detroit and recalls childhood memories of her father waiting many hours, sometimes all night, to take the ferry from the

Lower Peninsula to the Upper Peninsula for hunting trips, she said. She later made many trips north from her home in Oxbow Lake in Kalkaska County to watch the building of the bridge.

A frequent visitor to Mackinac Island, she wrote a trilogy set on the Island, titled "Once on This Island," "Farewell to the Island," and "Return to the Island," published by Harper Collins.

"I have visited many, many times with my daughter," Mrs. Whelan said of Mackinac Island. "We love it there."