Fifty years ago we were going to the moon; Walter Hudson was captive on Mackinac Island…

Travel back in time to the dynamic Sixties, when America raced to the moon. In Walter Hudson and the Mackinac Island Affair, award-winning journalist Diane Petryk brings all the excitement and tension of that era to Mackinac Island, where world events don’t stop at the ferry docks. It’s a rousing adventure for all ages, especially Mackinac Island lovers.

It’s 1966 . . .

. . . a time in America when parents wake sleepy children to watch early morning rocket launches. We’re going to the moon as a nation and 11-year-old Walter Hudson reads about all the space missions and clips pictures of the astronauts to tape on his bedroom wall in Brooklyn, New York. He’s a big city kid – until his mother makes him pack up for a move to Mackinac Island, Michigan, where she needs to take over her father’s newspaper. Walter makes a special new friend on the island, but refuses to unpack. He thinks nothing interesting will ever happen on an eight-mile-around dot of land where they don’t even have cars. But soon he’s witness to a plot to bribe Governor Romney to stall housing integration, his mom goes to jail to protect his identity as the source of this scoop, and he has to run the newspaper. Colorful characters people the story, including MontesQ, the genius trapped in the Grand Hotel; Freya Firestone, the flamboyant Detroit Free Press reporter; Carlee Rhodes, the rich girl who seems to love only horses, and the insidious, mysterious “Raccoon Man.” While grappling with the bad guys, Walter has to make a white-knuckle escape by helicopter. The pilot is Jane Hart, Senator Phil Hart’s wife, who’s trying to become an astronaut while space is still a men-only club.