Isle Royale is one of the country's most spectacular wilderness areas, and also one of our most remote and least-visited National Parks. It's a delightful place, with an intriguing natural and human history, yet the number of books and publications currently available about Isle Royale is amazingly small. At last, here's a book that does the island justice, essential reading for anyone who is even thinking about a trip to this out-of-the-way paradise.

Shelton does a superb job of describing the island's flora and fauna, devoting plenty of attention to the animals visitors especially hope to see -- the wolf and the moose -- without neglecting the role of humbler species like the gull, the loon, the beaver and the red squirrel. He also gives a good account of the various human activities carried out on the island -- copper mining, fishing, lumbering, resorts and finally running and caring for a National Park. All in all I found "Superior Wilderness" by far the best introduction to the park, better than, for example, Jim DuFresne's "Isle Royale: Foot Trails and Water Routes," though DuFresne's book is very useful in planning hikes and campsites. True Isle Royale aficionados should also pick up Howard Sivertson's "Once Upon an Isle," a series of reminiscences about growing up in the island's fishing community, illustrated by the author's delightful paintings, and "Isle Royale: A Photographic History," which charmingly documents the island's human history.