Bo at Iditarod Creek - Softcover

Hill, Kirkpatrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1250079705 ISBN 13: 9781250079701

Publisher: Square Fish, 2016

Synopsis

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 from Kirkpatrick Hill 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.

About this title

About the Author

Kirkpatrick Hill lives in Fairbanks, Alaska. She was an elementary school teacher for more than thirty years, most of that time in the Alaskan bush. She has written several books for young readers, including Toughboy and Sister, Winter Camp, and the award-winning The Year of Miss Agnes.

LeUyen Pham has illustrated numerous popular books for children, including Bo at Ballard Creek and The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdös by Deborah Heiligman. She lives in San Francisco.

From School Library Journal

Gr 4–7—Would you rather have a funny or sober dentist? Many such perplexing and sometimes humorous questions are asked in this follow up to Bo on Ballard Creek (Macmillan, 2013). Five-year-old Bo and her lovingly assembled family are on the move to a new Alaskan gold-mining town in the 1920s. Pham's illustrations beautifully match the careful and tender timbre of the book. Vivid historical and geographical details in a time of early American expansion cover the Alaskan landscape, including how people traveled (on pole boats). Each of these details are used to explore people's relationships and the ways that they cared for one another (or didn't) in an often trying world. Bo's family, comprised of her two papas—mining partners who took her in—and an adopted brother, give particularly tender windows into family moments and important life lessons. For instance, one of Bo's fathers is black and gets called the n-word by a child who doesn't know better. The treatment of the incident matches the childlike feel of book: the word is regarded as extremely hurtful—without much deeper exploration. The ending is predictable but heartwarming. Hill's author's note is absolutely necessary for greater, deeper content, though it could be expanded. The series is a good historical fiction alternative to the "Little House on the Prairie" books, with updated understandings of race, gender, and family. It also provides many reasons to be grateful for modern dentistry and air travel.—Lisa Nowlain, Darien Library, CT

About this edition

• Publisher: Square Fish
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1250079705
• ISBN 13: 9781250079701
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288
• Illustrator: Pham LeUyen