365 Days to Alaska, by Cathy Carr
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365 Days to Alaska by Cathy Carr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Eleven-year-old Rigel loves her life in the Alaskan Bush--off the grid and living off the land, immersed in a rich natural world of forest and stream and snow. She does correspondence school on the kitchen table with her sisters and is proud to bring two hares (her mother insists she learn the difference), to be made into a family favorite, rabbit casserole--and thanks to Bear, her dad, she knows how to field-dress the hares.
But this rustic life for Rigel, her sisters, Willow and Izzy, and her mother, Lila, is coming to an end. Her parents have divorced and there is no longer enough room in their small cabin for an ex-wife and ex-husband who don't get along. They are going to a new life with a grandmother Rigel has never met, in suburban Connecticut--a place Bear describes as "fake plastic crap from top to bottom." Too many people, too many cars and noise, and the only nature seems to be in overcrowded parks. Rigel finds herself a fish out of water in her new middle school, and the intricacies of its pecking order and who is in and who's out.
At first, her only friend is a hurt crow she befriends at school. All that keeps her going is a secret promise her father made--in a year, Rigel can home to Alaska. He life, and that of her family, and Blueberry the crow evolves over this year and Rigel comes to learn that if a wild crow can survive in the suburbs, perhaps she can, too.
This is a well-told "fish-out-of-water tale," and one of family and love and promises kept and promises broken. Rigel Harman is an engaging and likeable young girl, whose voice is real and true. Carr has done an amazing job of capturing this voice in this tale rich in detail. The rest of the cast is equally authentic, from Bear who disdains the so-called plastic life to the circle of "losers" Rigel finally meets at school.
365 Days to Alaska has a middle-school audience but I was drawn into Rigel's richly-described and well-crafted world, both in the Bush and in Connecticut. It is indeed a good read.
Highly recommended.
View all my reviews
365 Days to Alaska by Cathy CarrMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Eleven-year-old Rigel loves her life in the Alaskan Bush--off the grid and living off the land, immersed in a rich natural world of forest and stream and snow. She does correspondence school on the kitchen table with her sisters and is proud to bring two hares (her mother insists she learn the difference), to be made into a family favorite, rabbit casserole--and thanks to Bear, her dad, she knows how to field-dress the hares.
But this rustic life for Rigel, her sisters, Willow and Izzy, and her mother, Lila, is coming to an end. Her parents have divorced and there is no longer enough room in their small cabin for an ex-wife and ex-husband who don't get along. They are going to a new life with a grandmother Rigel has never met, in suburban Connecticut--a place Bear describes as "fake plastic crap from top to bottom." Too many people, too many cars and noise, and the only nature seems to be in overcrowded parks. Rigel finds herself a fish out of water in her new middle school, and the intricacies of its pecking order and who is in and who's out.
At first, her only friend is a hurt crow she befriends at school. All that keeps her going is a secret promise her father made--in a year, Rigel can home to Alaska. He life, and that of her family, and Blueberry the crow evolves over this year and Rigel comes to learn that if a wild crow can survive in the suburbs, perhaps she can, too.
This is a well-told "fish-out-of-water tale," and one of family and love and promises kept and promises broken. Rigel Harman is an engaging and likeable young girl, whose voice is real and true. Carr has done an amazing job of capturing this voice in this tale rich in detail. The rest of the cast is equally authentic, from Bear who disdains the so-called plastic life to the circle of "losers" Rigel finally meets at school.
365 Days to Alaska has a middle-school audience but I was drawn into Rigel's richly-described and well-crafted world, both in the Bush and in Connecticut. It is indeed a good read.
Highly recommended.
View all my reviews
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