Calling the Griffin

Allie and Shoo Spywell is just regular kids-well, sort of. It's just that their dad is an archaeologist, and their mother is a mystery writer. The Spywell kids always seem to get a few more history lessons than they would like. When Allie and Shoo arrive in St. Joseph, Michigan, they expect to have a relaxing vacation on the beach. However, something seems strange about the cottage. Is it haunted by a fisherman drowned in a storm many years ago? And is that a real sailing ship they see in the mist-or is it the legendary ghost ship the Griffin? Join Allie and Shoo in their thrilling adventure as they explore the history and legends of the French explorer LaSalle and his ghost ship, the Griffin, loaded with details of Great Lakes history.

Allie and Shoo Spywell is just regular kids-well, sort of. It's just that their dad is an archaeologist, and their mother is a mystery writer. The Spywell kids always seem to get a few more history lessons than they would like. When Allie and Shoo arrive in St. Joseph, Michigan, they expect to have a relaxing vacation on the beach. However, something seems strange about the cottage. Is it haunted by a fisherman drowned in a storm many years ago? And is that a real sailing ship they see in the mist-or is it the legendary ghost ship the Griffin? Join Allie and Shoo in their thrilling adventure as they explore the history and legends of the French explorer LaSalle and his ghost ship, the Griffin, loaded with details of Great Lakes history.

Award winning, Great Lakes author Janie Lynn Panagopoulos is a historian who shares her love of the subject with readers both young and young-at-heart Writing professionally for over 34 years, Janie’s passion lies in detailed historical research where she spends three to eight years researching academic facts in libraries, museums, and archival collections worldwide, to help bring history alive for her readers. However, she does not stop with the academic viewpoint, dressing in period costume of the era she is studying. She tries to experience what it might be like to live the life of those she is learning about. Whether it is drudging through the snow on snowshoes or following behind a dog sled, trekking along a military supply road in a wagon train, cooking over wood stoves or an open fire to experiment with historic recipes, cutting down trees, milking cows and learning the jobs of the lumberjacks, hiking ancient trails, canoeing thousands of miles along fur trade routes, studying with traditional Native Americans, or participating in archaeological digs, she had done it all.  Her research model is not just to read about the past but experience it both physically and emotionally, to help bring history alive in her writing.