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LOCAL AUTHOR WRITES A CHILDREN'S BOOK ABOUT PIRATES IN ONTARIO
THUNDER BAY, ON - July 21, 2008 - Pirates in Northwestern Ontario? Thunder Bay author Michael Setala's first children's book, Pirates of Nirado River (for ages 7 12) has just been released by River Rocks Publishing. A Thunder Bay adventure set in the forests of Northwestern Ontario, it is a book that almost didn't happen.
The author grew up on the family farm in Kaministiquia with his parents, Hilja and Leonard Setala, and five sisters and five brothers. He started writing children's books when he was just 13-years old as a way to entertain himself out on the farm.
Setala not only wrote stories, but also edited them, re-wrote them, added some pictures, and even bound them into small books. However, after all of this hard work, the books sat tucked away in a box for over 50 years. There they would have stayed but for a chance encounter in the summer of 2007. Synchronicity.
That is when McGill University's Thunder Bay-born anthropoligist and editor Tania L. Saj met Setala in his bakery, Kivela Bakery, while picking up some Finnish coffee bread,. He mentioned to her he had written a few children's books in the past and if she wanted to see them, he would bring them by the bakery.
"They turned out to be very good" said Saj, the daughter of Canadian author and journalist Elle Andra-Warner, the owner of River Rocks Publishing. "The Pirates of Nirado River is not only a great story about friendship, imagination and adventure, but the story behind the story is a wonderful example of why it is so important to encourage creativity around imagination in children of all ages. You never know where your imagination will take you."
River Rocks Publishing was launched a year ago with the book, Life in a Thundering Bay: Voices from Thunder Bay's Past. It is an independent publisher and distributor of books about Northwestern Ontario by regional authors.
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