Lucky Hares and Itchy Bears and other Alaskan Animals

by Susan Ewing, Evon Zerbetz (Illustrator)

Splash, dance and Jitterbug, with fifteen wild Alaskan animals in this updated edition of a beloved classic children's book. This new edition of Lucky Hares and Itchy Bears features animals in picture and poem. The 2012 edition sports a new cover, new color, bigger pictures on the pages, and even some new poems, but still has the bones of the original, so if you already have the book on your shelf, buy the new edition for gift giving!

Genres: Poetry

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

My two greatest joys as a kid were riding my bike and reading books. Both offered escape and adventure—my bike took me flying out into the physical world, while books were the bridge to an inner world of emotion and ideas. I came to writing as way to hold the physical world like a bird in my hands, so I could see more clearly, feel more deeply, and understand more completely. And because in those moments when writing works, it’s magic.

I was born and raised in Kentucky, but wandered west soon after graduating high school. I lived in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest for many years, rotating through a variety of jobs, like working as a bull cook in the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay, commercial salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska, staking mining claims for a geophysical company in the Brooks Range, working in a print shop, and waitressing. Then I got a job as an wildlife information officer, and started writing as part of the job. Something clicked. I loved it. Soon after that I wrote my first book, Going Wild in Washington and Oregon. I was the kid on the bike—thrilled and committed to the ride.

Somewhere in all that I finished my much-interrupted education and graduated with a BA from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. In 1991, I moved to the Gallatin Valley of Montana, which felt like home as soon as I saw the Bridger Mountains on the horizon. My life is at its sweetest equilibrium when I’m out hiking in those mountains with my husband and my dog.

Reviews

[Little Seesaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the books I got in Alaska. It is full of pictures and poems. Visiting Alaska was both picturesque and poetic. So this was the perfect choice.