Books with author Ed Butts

In 1679, a French ship called the Griffon left Green Bay on Lake Michigan, bound for Niagara with a cargo of furs. Neither the Griffon nor the five-man crew was ever seen again. Though the Griffon’s fate remains a mystery, its disappearance was probably the result of the first shipwreck on a Great Lake.Since then, more than six thousand vessels, large and small, have met tragic ends on the Great Lakes. For many years, saltwater mariners scoffed at the freshwater sailors of the Great Lakes, “puddles” compared to the vast oceans. But those who actually worked on the Great Lakes ships knew differently.Shoals and reefs, uncharted rocks, and sandbars could snare a ship or rip open a hull. Unpredictable winds could capsize a vessel at any moment. A ship caught in a storm had much less room to maneuver than did one at sea. The wreckage of ships and the bones of the people who sail them litter the bottoms of the five lakes: Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior. Ed Butts has gathered stories and lake lore in this fascinating, frightening volume. For anyone living on the shores of the Great Lakes, these tales will inspire a new interest and respect for their storied past.

In 1679, a French ship called the Griffon left Green Bay on Lake Michigan, bound for Niagara with a cargo of furs. Neither the Griffon nor the five-man crew was ever seen again. Though the Griffon’s fate remains a mystery, its disappearance was probably the result of the first shipwreck on a Great Lake.Since then, more than six thousand vessels, large and small, have met tragic ends on the Great Lakes. For many years, saltwater mariners scoffed at the freshwater sailors of the Great Lakes, “puddles” compared to the vast oceans. But those who actually worked on the Great Lakes ships knew differently.Shoals and reefs, uncharted rocks, and sandbars could snare a ship or rip open a hull. Unpredictable winds could capsize a vessel at any moment. A ship caught in a storm had much less room to maneuver than did one at sea. The wreckage of ships and the bones of the people who sail them litter the bottoms of the five lakes: Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior. Ed Butts has gathered stories and lake lore in this fascinating, frightening volume. For anyone living on the shores of the Great Lakes, these tales will inspire a new interest and respect for their storied past.

Everyone’s life is touched at some time by disaster. But some disasters loom so large they are international events. The stories of those who live through such devastating events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, fires, and floods are both heartbreaking and compelling. Often they are inspiring and uplifting. SOS: Stories of Survival tells the tales of young survivors of such disasters — teenage coal miners trapped deep below the surface of the earth in Springhill, Nova Scotia; children who ran to escape the poisonous exploding gases spewing from Mont Pelee on Martinique; teens who rode the roofs of their homes in Pennsylvania’s roaring Johnstown Flood; and youngsters who survived, but still suffer from, the nuclear accident in Chernobyl.Archival photos document these astounding sagas.

During the American Revolution and the border conflicts that followed, Simon Girty’s name struck terror into the hearts of U.S. settlers in the Ohio Valley and the territory of Kentucky. Girty (1741-1818) had lived with the Natives most of his life. Scorned by his fellow white frontiersmen as an "Indian lover," Girty became an Indian agent for the British. He accompanied Native raids against Americans, spied deep into enemy territory, and was influential in convincing the tribes to fight for the British. The Americans declared Girty an outlaw. In U.S. history books he is a villain even worse than Benedict Arnold. Yet in Canada, Girty is regarded as a Loyalist hero, and a historic plaque marks the site of his homestead on the Ontario side of the Detroit River. In Native history, Girty stands out as one of the few white men who championed their cause against American expansion. But was he truly the "White Savage" of legend, or a hero whose story was twisted by his foes?

Ol' Griz, Manitoba Mike, and the rest of the Bear Bunch who live out Bruindale way have a problem. A sign on the door of the new indoor shopping place in the nearby town says No Bare Feet. How, they wonder, can bears shop if they aren't allowed to bring in their feet? They decide they will have to confront the manager and demand a solution to this very unfair situation. The manager is anxious to comply - when he finds himself face to face with a very big, and not very happy grizzly bear. This funny short story certainly bears checking out.

On the orders of Periander, the tyrant ruler of the ancient Greek city of Corinth, 300 boys are abducted from their homes on the island of Corcyra, and carried off in ships to be sold into slavery in Persia. The Corinthian ships stop at the island of Samos, whose inhabitants are appalled at the idea of Greek boys becoming slaves in Persia. A Samian soldier named Lysander comes up with a clever plan to rescue the boys. However, for the plan to be successful, a Corcyrean boy named Cleon must assume the role of leader and convince the other boys that they must work together if they are to regain their freedom. This is a fictional story based on an actual event from the history of ancient Greece.

Meet the heroes, villains, and bunglers hired to protect others. We might think of bodyguards as a modern concept, but they’ve been around since ancient times. The rich, the powerful, the famous, and the infamous have all placed their safety in the hands of bodyguards. From Caesar’s Praetorian Guard to Japanese samurai warriors to Wild West outlaws, bodyguards have played a vital role. They’ve even changed the course of history. There are notorious bodyguards who protect gangsters from the police and those who are paid to shield celebrities from the paparazzi, while others escort children in danger of being kidnapped. In Bodyguards! you’ll meet both heroes (like the quick-thinking guard whose spear saved the life of Alexander the Great) and villains (like the elite Hitler Bodyguard, later tried as war criminals), and even some bodyguards who have failed in their job to protect. Brimming with vibrant action-packed illustrations in graphic-novel style, Bodyguards! opens the window on the fascinating stories of those entrusted to protect people’s lives.

This story is a tall tale, told in the tradition of humorous yarns about frontiersmen like Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. Frontier Frank is a tough, wily woodsman whose long beard is his pride and joy. One day he wakes up to find that a nasty varmint called a Whisker Nestin' Fightin' Fly has made its home in his beard. The fly has incredible strength and speed, and nothing Frank does to get rid of it works. The Fightin' Fly makes Frank's life miserable. Things get worse when the fly introduces Frank to his Missus, and says there will soon be a lot of little maggots in his beard. Frank realizes that if he is ever going to be free of the pesky flies, he'll have to outsmart them. He comes up with a clever plan, and a brilliant invention

Anyone who has fantasized about becoming fabulously rich overnight can relate to this collection of treasure hunt stories — tales of buried pirate gold, of hidden outlaw loot, of wrecked ships loaded with valuable coins and jewels, and of “lost” gold mines. Some of the stories are tall tales based on little evidence. Many a dreamer wasted money, energy, and perhaps even a lifetime chasing after a pot of gold that did not exist. But some hidden treasures are real, even if the stories about them are exaggerated.Many of the stories came down to us from an age in which pirates were said to be in league with the devil and supposedly used black magic to protect their hidden plunder.Ed Butts’s tales of adventure, of shattered hopes, and, occasionally, of dreams come true expose the greed and the challenges that motivated the searchers. A few of them got lucky. But X didn’t mark the spot for most of these adventurers — and that means undiscovered treasures still lie ready to ignite the imagination.

Everyone’s life is touched at some time by disaster. But some disasters loom so large they are international events. The stories of those who live through such devastating events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, fires, and floods are both heartbreaking and compelling. Often they are inspiring and uplifting. SOS: Stories of Survival tells the tales of young survivors of such disasters — teenage coal miners trapped deep below the surface of the earth in Springhill, Nova Scotia; children who ran to escape the poisonous exploding gases spewing from Mont Pelee on Martinique; teens who rode the roofs of their homes in Pennsylvania’s roaring Johnstown Flood; and youngsters who survived, but still suffer from, the nuclear accident in Chernobyl.Archival photos document these astounding sagas.

This learning kit (book with accompanying audio CD) helps children learn to read with thirteen fun and energetic lessons/songs teaching r-controlled vowels ar, or, er, ir and ur and blends ck, sp, st, sm, sn, sc, sk, sl, sw, bl, cl, fl, pl, br, cr, gr, tr, dr and pr. Also included on the CD are 13 musical accompaniment tracks that are great for boosting literacy by allowing students to perform karaoke style while reading along.

This sensational learning kit (book with accompanying audio CD) helps students to become familiar with initial blends, common word families, consonants (k, hard c, soft c), consonant digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh, ng), variant vowels (oo), dipthongs (oi, ay, oy), silent consonants (h and k) and the sound of igh. Also included on the CD are 14 musical accompaniment tracks that are great for boosting literacy by allowing students to perform karaoke style while reading along.