Raspberry Wars: My Boyhood through Berries, Bullying, and Bravery

Raspberry Wars: My Boyhood through Berries, Bullying, and Bravery

Born into a family with special needs in a small, Dutch Michigan town in the early 1960s and raised by his deeply religious grandmother, Sherwood De Visser navigates the horrors of bullying at home and at school. He tries to create safe spaces wherever he goes in attempts to stave off the bullying. Respite comes when summer vacations with family friends open his world to the joys of farm life. He gains a sense of order and self-esteem. Until he’s forced to choose between living with family friends or his grandparents. Here he must learn what it means to choose a life of faith, love, and joy in the midst of chaos. Raspberry Wars: My Boyhood of Berries, Bullying, and Bravery is the story of a kid who navigated bullying and thrived. SHERWOOD DE VISSER survived school and began working in the local canneries in Fremont, Michigan. Soon bored, he traveled the world, visiting the West, the Deep South, and Upstate New York, and back to Michigan. He graduated from Central Michigan University, earning his bachelor's in history and English. In 1983, he won the prestigious Cranbrook Grand Prize Award for Historical Fiction. Raspberry Wars: My Boyhood through Berries, Bullying, and Bravery is Sherwood's first memoir. He and Anita, his wife of thirty-eight years, live in Michigan. Learn more at www.sherwooddevisser.com.