In the winter of 1936, five-year-old Fern experiences her first big adventure when her father, captain of the Manitou, takes her aboard his ship as her mother lays dying at home. The ship must travel through the icy waters of Lake Michigan to deliver train cars, and along the way Fern gets to know the ship’s crew, befriending a young deckhand named Alv.

“Across the Great Lake” by Lee Zacharias is told through memories of the adult Fern, but still with the innocence of a young girl th...