Overview

Water Wheels is a story of historical fiction about two immigrant teenagers who grew up in Minnesota during the 1870s. Halvor Dahl's Norwegian family are poor Lutheran farmers who settle in the Cannon River valley of southern Minnesota. Emelia Meier's German family are Catholic merchants in the capital city of St. Paul. Halvor and Emelia meet each other and experience adventures in all four corners of the state, traveling urban and rural Minnesota by train, steamboat, and horse-drawn buggy. Separately and together, they witness social and political changes, financial ups and downs, crimes, fires, blizzards, swarms of insects, and a comet. Chapter by chapter, the teens meet and are affected by well-known Minnesota entrepreneurs James J. Hill, Cadwallader Washburn, Isaac Staples, and Theodore Hamm; politicians John Pillsbury, Oliver Kelley, and Ignatius Donnelly; bishop John Ireland, author Laura Ingalls Wilder, and outlaw Jesse James, in addition to others.

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9781960250957

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"Water Wheels is the second book in Michael Barnes' ""North Star Kids"" series, following Twisting Trails, published by Calumet Editions in 2020. The series provides young adults with historical fiction adventures, which are based on factual Minnesota people, places and events.As a retired social studies educator who taught history, geography, sociology, civics, and economics, Barnes is uniquely qualified to write these books. A resident of Minnesota for more than fifty years, Barnes has enjoyed unique wonders in every corner of the state. An avid outdoorsman, he has fished Minnesota lakes and rivers and hunted its fields and forests. He is a married (Kelly) father of two (Greg and Andy), and four granddaughters (Madison, Claire, Sylvia and Lucy)."

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