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A Smithsonian Notable Book for Children A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year “Genius.” —The New York Times Book Review A beautiful repackage marking the twentieth anniversary of the beloved, award-winning novel that celebrates teachers and learning. Ten-year-old Frederika (Fred for short) doesn’t have much faith that the new teacher in town will last very long. After all, they never do. Most teachers who come to their one-room schoolhouse in remote Alaska leave at the first smell of fish, claiming that life there is just too hard. But Miss Agnes is different: she doesn’t get frustrated with her students, and finds new ways to teach them to read and write. She even takes a special interest in Fred’s sister, Bokko, who has never come to school before because she is deaf. For the first time, Fred, Bokko, and their classmates begin to enjoy their lessons—but will Miss Agnes be like all the rest and leave as quickly as she came?
It's the 1920s, and Bo was headed for an Alaska orphanage when she won the hearts of two tough gold miners who set out to raise her, enthusiastically helped by all the kind people of the nearby Eskimo village. Bo learns Eskimo along with English, helps in the cookshack, learns to polka, and rides along with Big Annie and her dog team. There's always some kind of excitement: Bo sees her first airplane, has a run-in with a bear, and meets a mysterious lost little boy. Bo at Ballard Creek by Kirkpatrick Hill is an unforgettable story of a little girl growing up in the exhilarating time after the big Alaska gold rushes.
In the “compelling” (Kirkus Reviews) sequel to Toughboy and Sister, the two young kids struggle as they learn to survive at a winter trapping camp during the harsh Alaskan winter. Recently orphaned, eleven-year-old Toughboy and his younger sister have been living with Natasha, an eldery, cantankerous Athabascan Indian. In the late fall, Natasha flies with them to a camp where the children learn to trap and live during the Alaskan winter. But when an old miner is seriously injured and Natasha has to leave to get help, Toughboy and Sister are pushed to their limits as they learn to survive for themselves while caring for the injured miner.
After Momma's death, Toughboy and Sister find themselves in the care of Father, who spends more time in the local bar than looking after his children. With help from the women in the village, though, Toughboy and Sister get through the rest of the winter without Mamma. Finally, spring comes: time to make the long-awaited annual trip to the fish camp with Father. Once they arrive at their cabin, things start to look up for the children -- the fish camp is always fun, and Father seems to be in good spirits. Maybe their fractured family will be all right. Or not. When Father goes to town and drinks himself to death, Toughboy and Sister are suddenly left to fend for themselves in the Alaskan wilderness.
Deet's world turns upside down when his father is arrested for drug use. It doesn't seem possible that kind, caring Dad could be a criminal! After all, he only took the pills to stay awake so he could work two jobs. Now what will happen? How will Deet be able to face his classmates? Where will they get money? And most importantly, will Dad be okay in prison? Hurt, angry, and ashamed, Deet doesn't want to visit his father in jail. But when Mom goes back to work, Deet starts visiting Dad after school. It's frightening at first, but as he adjusts to the routine, Deet begins to see the prisoners as people with stories of their own, just like his dad. Deet soon realizes that prison isn't the terrifying place of movies and nightmares. In fact, Dad's imprisonment leads Deet to make a few surprising discoveries -- about his father, his friends, and himself. With moving realism, Kirkpatrick Hill brings to light the tumultuous experience of having a parent in jail in this honest and stirring story of a young man forced to grow up quickly.
Twelve-year-old Minuk's traditional Eskimo way of life is changed forever in 1892 with the arrival of Christian missionaries.
Ever since five-year-old Bo can remember, she and her papas have lived in the little Alaskan mining town of Ballard Creek. Now the family must move upriver to Iditarod Creek for work at a new mine, and Bo is losing the only home she's ever known. Initially homesick, she soon realizes that there is warmth and friendship to be found everywhere . . . and what's more, her new town may hold an unexpected addition to her already unconventional family. As with Bo at Ballard Creek, this stand-alone sequel is a story about love, inclusion, and day-to-day living in the rugged Alaskan bush of the late 1920s. Full of fascinating details, it is an unforgettable story.
Imagine an alien came down to Earth, stuck a probe into a climber's brain – one who'd been climbing for over thirty years – and then transmogrified the contents into a big book of climbing tips. Well, 1001 Climbing Tips by Andy Kirkpatrick is just such a book. This is no regular instruction manual – it's much more useful than that. This is a massive collection of all those little tips that make a real difference when at the crag, in the mountains, or when you're planning your next big trip. It's for anyone who hangs off stuff, or just hangs around in the mountains. These tips are based on three decades of climbing obsession, as well as nineteen ascents of El Cap, numerous Alpine north faces, trips to the polar ice caps, and many other scary climbs and expeditions. The following areas are covered: Basics, Safety, Big Wall, Ice, Mixed, Mountain, Training, and Stuff.
Matthew Kirkpatrick’s debut, Light without Heat, is an inventive, surprising collection of short stories full of odd, marginal characters rendered with surreal humor and lyrical, often beautiful language. Formally playful, these stories take the shape of biographies, instructions, glossaries, and diagrams, all ultimately in the service of depicting characters with emotional intensity. Stories in the collection explore the flawed nature of memory, workplace malaise, the isolation of home, and the last throes of ending love. No two stories in Light without Heat are the same, yet all of them work toward sharing human experience in new, innovative ways.
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