Miriam Gershow Visits Ferndale Public Library

If Miriam Gershow made a bumper sticker it would say “Fiction Saves Lives.” The Berkley High graduate is the author of The Local News, a story about a teenager whose older brother went missing and how it affected her and her family. Gershow, who now lives in Oregon, came back to Michigan to do a reading from the novel at The Ferndale Public Library as part of their Ferndale Reads celebration.

Original Work Found in Library Storage Room

The painting—created as an illustration for The Story of Hiawatha–is gouache on illustration board. Room was left in the lower right corner for text, which was written by Allen Chaffee as a retelling of the famous Longfellow poem. Published in 1951, The Story of Hiawatha features Sperry’s illustrations throughout and is currently out of print, though two copies remain in circulation at the Ferndale Public Library.