Northern Passages: Feisty Tales of 'Growing Up North (Northern Mania!) [Paperback]

Jerry Harju (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1995 | Series: Northern Mania!

Jerry Harju's third book, "Northern Passages," is another hilarious helping of a boy growing up in Upper Michigan in the late '30's and 40's. The short stories range from his first day at kindergarten to high school prom night. One tale deals with life in Hot Springs, Arkansas where our hero faces the danger of playing football in a school where he's the only Yankee. Other topics range from the perils of recital piano playing to the terrors of Lutheran confirmation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...He has captured the mood of that time and era in all its romantic nonsense and robust humor." -- The Alpena, Michigan News

"I grew up in the city, but thanks to Jerry Harju's colorful, vivid, entertaining essays, I can grow up in the country too." -- Gene Perret, Three-Time Emmy-Award-Winning Writer and Writing Supervisor for Bob Hope

About the Author

Jerry Harju was born in Ishpeming, Michigan in 1933. He received a degree in engineering from the University of Michigan in 1957 and completed his formal education with a MS from the University of Southern California in 1985. After 30 years as a manager in the aerospace industry in Southern California, Jerry began humor writing as a second career. He now lives in Marquette, Michigan.

Product Details

• Paperback: 147 pages
• Publisher: North Harbor Pub (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967020530
• ISBN-13: 978-0967020532
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,391,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars So funny you'll finish it in a day!, February 28, 2008

By 

R. Clark (GR, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Northern Passages: Feisty Tales of 'Growing Up North (Northern Mania!) (Paperback)

Being a Michigander, there is a certain nastalgia about our Upper Penninsula. That shared nastalgia and love/enjoyment of life comes out it all of these books. You'll laugh so hard that your wife will think you've gone crazy.

5.0 out of 5 stars hilarious!, yet you can still identify with it, August 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Northern Passages: Feisty Tales of 'Growing Up North (Northern Mania!) (Paperback)

this is only the 3rd book in a series of five and i can already guaruntee that no matter where you'e from, you'll love this book! living near Flint, Michigan most of my life and going to the UP a few times makes it even easier to identify with this book. i've been through the town where the writer grew up(in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) and its a lot like my hometown. especially in the first story, the Kindergarten Chronicles, i can really agree with the writer. it felt like you were the dumbest kid in class on the first day of kindergarten, but it also felt like you were already tons smarter than everybody else and you were the only sane one there! at one point in the story, when the writer's class' assingnment was to draw a ball and color it, they could only choose from red, yellow or black. the writer uses a turquoise(sophisticated!)crayon that he brought from home and a tinkertoy can to make a perfectly round circle while the teacher isn't looking. since the kid next to him was having trouble, he thought he would help him out and tell him his secret. when he finished explaining, it said,"He gave me a blank stare." AMEN! this same thing happened to me a lot, and still does. another example of feeling like you're the only smart one there. and when their teacher tells them she'll pick the best one and the artist will be the winner. when she "judges", she says "they're all so good i can't decide! so you're all winners!" AMEN! again! i hated this when it happened to me! the writer then writes, "It was clear the school system didn't appreciate independent thinkers." this is how i always felt. then the same kid he tries to help does something that i was much too chicken to do as a little kid for fear of getting into deep trouble (that i shouldn't mention directly because i'd be spoiling it for you) to the fat kid who takes over all the toys, the writer gets blamed for it. so when the teacher keeps him after school, the kid who did it says it was him, not the narrator. after he(the narrator) is let off, the teacher tells him that his ball was actually the best, and she just didn't want to hurt the other kids' feelings. i can identify with this, too. i couldn't stand the suspense. gee,i hope i didn't spoil too much for you, but it was necessary to help get my point across of why i love this book. besides, this was only part of the first story in a book of 9 short stories. again, if you want a grab-it and read a great, quick, funny, book(with modestly clean humor), this is the book for you! do not pass this one up!!

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Up In Rural America, March 28, 2001

By 

Lidia Menchaca (Marquette, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Northern Passages: Feisty Tales of 'Growing Up North (Northern Mania!) (Paperback)

Northern Passages is the third book in Jerry Harju's chronicles of growing up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It is chock full of adventures of his boyhood. Even if you grew up in the city, when reading this book you can experience growing up in rural America. Northern Passages is filled with humor, nostalgia, and sometimes sadness. Every child's first day of school is a memorable one, but in Jerry's life it was even more than that. Imagine a five-year-old explaining to his mother why he was kept after school. This book also commemorates piano recitals, the annual Fourth of July bonfire, the poignancy of changing schools in the middle of the year, Jerry's introduction to and coping with segregation, the rigors of catechism class, home economics without the girls, and finally his night out with the boys, visiting a wide open Wisconsin border town at the ripe old age of sixteen. From beginning to end, each page of Northern Passages will bring a smile and a chuckle.