When
the influenza epidemic strikes Duluth, Minnesota, in 1918,
Marven's parents know they must send their son far away to keep
him safe from the disease. So ten-year-old Marven boards a train
headed for a logging camp in the great north woods, not knowing
if he will ever see his family again.
In the north, Marven finds a new world of towering
trees, endless expanses of snow, and lumberjacks as big as
grizzly bears. A city boy, Marven feels very alone among the
enormous woodsmen - and then he meets Jean Louis, the burliest
jack of all. Marven of the Great North Woods is a true
story about a small Jewish boy and a bearish French-Canadian
lumberjack - and how they became friends under the most unusual
circumstances.
Kathryn Lasky grew up hearing the story of her father's childhood friendship with the lumberjacks of the great north woods. An award- winning author of many picture books, photo-essays, and novels for young readers, Kathryn Lasky told the story of the earlier years of Marven's family in her novel The Night Journey, which was awarded the National Jewish Book Award for Children.
Kevin Hawkes has lived all over the world, often in climates as snowy as the great north woods. As a child he enjoyed many kinds of art from sculpture to photography to drawing, and later decided that illustration would best blend his love of books and his love of art. He is the illustrator of many popular picture books, including Kathryn Lasky’s The Librarian Who Measured the Earth, Walter de la Mare’s The Turnip, and Bill Grossman’s My Little Sister Ate One Hare. Kevin Hawkes lives with his family on an island off the coast of Maine, where he, like Marven, travels via cross-country skis in the winter.
Read the review from Publishers Weekly