Dancing at the Odinochka - Softcover

Hill, Kirkpatrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1442413522 ISBN 13: 9781442413528

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2010

Synopsis

Nearly 150 years ago, when Alaska belonged to Russia and was called Russian America, Erinia Pavaloff lived at the Nulato odinochka on the banks of the Yukon River. Owned by the Russian American Company, an odinochka was a trading post where native people traded their furs for precious Russian supplies. Erinia is always busy - learning to make fur clothing, emptying buckets of snow into water barrels, helping Mamma, gathering spruce boughs to make fish traps, and grinding paint for a new canoe. It seems that Erinia works all the time. So she can hardly wait for visitors - the company men who bring stock for trading, or the Indians who come to fish or sell furs. When visitors come, Erinia and the others are delighted to listen to old stories and music, and everyone dances at the odinochka. Life has a good sameness that Erinia counts on . . . until the day when American Western Union Telegraph men arrive. Sent up north to build a telegraph line, the men bring news of the outside world, new inventions, and customs unfamiliar to Erinia's people. Everyone at the odinochka listens to the Americans' stories, learns their funny songs, and dances the waltz that the telegraph men teach them. But as suddenly as they've come, the telegraph men leave - their telegraph line abandoned - and Erinia is bereft. Word comes that the United States has purchased Russian America from Russia; Erinia and her people have become American Alaskans. Their lives will never be the same, as they struggle to find their place in this American world that doesn't care about the old ways. Will there ever again be dancing at their odinochka? Inspired by a five-page memoir written in 1936 by the real Erinia Pavaloff, a relative of the author's stepfather, Dancing at the Odinochka is a stunning story of family, culture, and hope that will leave no reader untouched.

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." Hill is the mother of six children and the grandmother of eight. Her three earlier books, Toughboy and Sister, Winter Camp, and The Year of Miss Agnes, have all been immensely popular. Her fourth book with McElderry Books, Dancing at the Odinochka, was a Junior Library Guild Selection. Hill's visits to a family member in jail inspired her to write Do Not Pass Go.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8–In the 1860s in what is now Alaska (then called Russian America), Erinia Pavaloff, her parents, and seven others live at the Nulato odinochka, where Indians and Eskimos trade furs for Russian goods such as tobacco and tea. The life of these settlers is described–their daily routines, their search for food, making clothing, housing, and their survival on the land. Erinia's life is described as she experiences hunting season, winter, spring thaw, festivals, and visiting tribes of traders. As she grows, she learns the skill of survival in this remote land, using tools made by the natives and how to measure goods in the store. She is amazed when the telegraph men come to this remote area and discovers the items they bring, such as photographs, toothbrushes, and scissors. At first, the changes are for the good. Then, after the United States purchases the land from Russia, they all become American Alaskans and new ways begin to conflict with the old. Believable characters and good descriptions of the area allow readers to become a part of this time in history that is often overlooked.–Denise Moore, O'Gorman Junior High School, Sioux Falls, SD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1442413522
• ISBN 13: 9781442413528
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272