Big Alaskan Bowhunt (Wilderness Ridge)

Thirteen-year-old Juniper is full of excitement when she’s offered the chance to visit her aunt and uncle in Alaska and take part in a hunt in the Tongass National Forest. Juniper has plenty of experience hunting mule deer at home in Colorado, and she's sure she’ll be ready for whatever Alaska can throw at her. But Southeast Alaska isn’t quite what Juniper expected. When she expresses her disappointment out loud, she accidentally offends a local boy named Ben, who turns out to be part of the hunting expedition. Circumstances—including bad weather, elusive deer, and a surprise bear encounter—throw Juniper and Ben together on the hunt. They'll have to learn to work together and respect each other’s skills if Juniper wants to get her first Sitka black-tailed deer.

Monica Roe grew up in a tiny farming town and spent her childhood holed up in a corner of the local library, where she was once almost locked in at closing time. (She saw this as a huge win; the librarian disagreed). Monica has spent more than a decade as a physical therapy provider for remote, off-road communities throughout rural Alaska. When not commuting to work on bush planes, Monica studies public health at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She and her family spend summers at their apiary in South Carolina and provide local educational programs about pollinators and beekeeping.