Excellent book!, May 29, 2006

Reviewer:Beckiboobear (Michigan, USA) -

Charlotte Otten wins with this excellent book for young kids! Adults can even enjoy this one! Otten writes an excellent story filled with historical facts that makes the book a great learning tool as well. I live near Fort Wilkins, which is the place portrayed in the book and I was so touched to have the area represented so wonderfully. Being a native of the area, I thank Ms. Otten for her beautiful story and for sharing the wonder of this area with the world!

Article From
Calvin College Newsletter

LAYLA ASLANI
The Daily Mining Gazette (Houghton)

COPPER HARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- Tired of traveling the western part of the United States, Charlotte Otten, a now retired English professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, and her husband enlisted the help of friends to find a new vacation spot. Little did she know the new spot would keep them coming back for 20 summers straight and inspire her to write a children's book.

The vacation spot was Copper Harbor, and Otten's newly released children's book is "Home in a Wilderness Fort: Copper Harbor, 1844."

The story chronicles the adventures of 10-year-old Josette who comes to Copper Harbor with her sister and brother-in-law, an officer in the U.S. military who has been assigned to help build Fort Wilkins in 1844.

Young and curious, Josette has numerous adventures that teach her about the native culture, military camp life and the dangers of the wilderness.

After a close encounter with a family of bears, a scene Otten based on a personal experience, Josette is rescued by an Indian girl named Maria. The two become best friends and bridge the gap between their two cultures.

Otten based many of the situations Josette found herself in on personal experiences and on events that actually occurred in Copper Harbor during that year, such as the sinking of the ship the John-Jacob Astor.

The book is for children ages 7 to 12, but Otten said the adults also enjoy it. Otten said her love of history, research of children's literature and time spent in Copper Harbor visiting Fort Wilkins, fishing and viewing mines combined to inspire her to write "Home in a Wilderness Fort."

"Every time we were there (Copper Harbor), we went to see the fort," Otten said. "We saw the fort and looked through all those buildings, spent hours there. I felt as though somebody had to write about the early years of the fort."

Although the book is fiction, Otten did extensive research to make it as historically accurate as possible.

"I spent 10 years doing research off and on. Every time we went up I made some notes, I'd go to the cemetery just to get a feeling for the area," Otten said.

Otten researched the early years of the fort and the Ojibwe culture by obtaining photocopies of historic documents and letters, reading many books, using the Internet and talking to experts.

In addition to her editor, Otten had historians read the manuscript of the book to help authenticate it.

One of them was Thomas Friggens, the regional manager for the Michigan Historical Center, which is an agency within the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries.

"There was remarkable attention to some detail," Friggens said. "It gives a flavor of life at Fort Wilkins and gives a flavor for life in the pioneer era of the Keweenaw."

Home is Otten's first children's novel, but it is not her first book. She has written a children's book of poems titled "January Rides the Wind" and adult books on subjects such as women in Great Britain, the history of werewolves and childbirth poems.

At Home in a Wilderness Fort: Fort Wilkins 1844
by Charlotte F. Otten
Arbutus Press, 2006
ISBN: 0-9766104-5-0