Many years ago, on a circle tour with her family, Kathy Groth was looking for a book on shipwrecks that would be interesting to her children. After coming up empty upon asking at every bookstore and gift shop that they stopped at, Groth got a shot in the arm in Bayfield. After a local bookstore owner told Groth that he didn't have a shipwreck book for youths, he suggested to Groth that she write one herself. ”I thought, you know what, I'm going to." That summer involved trips to Lake Superior and the library.
It wasn't until decades later that Groth - rediscovering her initial research in the basement - finished Sunken: Shipwrecks of Lake Superior, which is both a reference book and a story of a boy who’s afraid of water. The protagonist, Chase, finds himself at the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center where he meets Bri. Through a surprising turn, the two explore various wrecks on the lake. The book includes large, colorful pictures and informative captions geared toward younger readers, but the info on the pages may very well reach out to a variety of ages. “I've actually had a really good response from adults,” says Groth. "It's a technical enough subject... [adults] say they learned a lot."
And Lake Superior is just the beginning for Groth. The plan is to write a book for each of the Great Lakes. Next up; Lake Michigan.
You can find Sunken: Shipwrecks of Lake Superior through Groth's website or through Lake Superior Magazine.
Minnesota Reads is produced at The North 103.3 with funding provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
