Now Available! The book will should be available throuh wholesale distributors by fall 2009. Retain Price: $16.95. Schools and school districts should contact the author for special sales price when they purchase class sets of 20 or more copies. To twelve-year-old Emma, life may be hard, but it is basically good. She has finished sixth grade and is nearly a young lady. But, in the summer of 1913, her life, and the lives of everyone in the region, will be changed forever by a violent strike against the mining companies in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A friend whose father is not on strike will be forbidden to talk to her. Another will die in the terrible Italian Hall Tragedy on Christmas Eve. Only the trait the Finnish people call "sisu" will help her and others in the region live through it. This well-researched historical fiction takes place in Houghton County, Michigan, in the towns of Calumet, Houghton, Hancock, Laurium and the surrounding area. It is written from the point of view of a twelve-year-old girl whose father is on strike. The first-person narrative puts the reader on the scene. Historical photographs help the reader see the time and place.    Another review may be found at: http://keweenawnow.blogspot.com/2009/07/local-author-brings-copper-country.html

Professional Reviews
Superbly Done!
Living on Sisu took me back to the days growing up on my grandfather's farm. I had always heard stories about the Italian Hall Tragedy, but Deborah's book put me there on the scene. Dr. Robert O. Nara

Living People from Century-old Photos
Frontiera is able to take those nameless faces from century-old photos and create for us living people--young people filled with fears and hopes in the wake of events that defined the history of Michigan's Copper Country.
James Kurtti, editor, The Finnish American Reporter

Review by Ellen Feld, Apr. 2009
With exhaustive research, author Deborah K. Frontiera has brought attention to a tragic event within the copper industry during the early twentieth century. The impossible working conditions inside the copper mines in Michigan's Upper Peninsula precipitated a violent strike that lasted for months and took the lives of many people. Frontiera has written a fictional story about a young girl, Emma, to draw young readers into the true story of the miners, their families, and the harsh treatment employees were subjected to from the mine owners. Through Emma's diary, readers will be drawn into this mesmerizing story of a strike and the Christmas Eve tragedy that brought the horrors of mining to the general publics' attention.

Want to review or comment on this book?
Click here to login!

Need a FREE Reader Membership?
Click here for your Membership!