Alaska Boots for Chelsea by Phyllis Adams & Illus by Kathleen Lynch

Another Alaska book! 

Hopefully you don't get tired of Alaska books because, I have every intention of blogging about each and every Alaskan book that catches my attention. #noshame

This book is a tender look at personal responsibility, forgiveness, and renewal with a few traditional customs of the Athabaskan people thrown in. Or it looks at the traditional customs of the Athabaskan people with a side order of personal responsibility, forgiveness, and renewal. Depends on your perspective.

Chelsea is finally old enough for her very own pair of boots. Her sitsu (grandmother) tells her how to care for the boots as she makes them. 

"...they will be forever warm and light if you do not get them wet. Once they are wet, they become very heavy. You will feel like a Raven without wings. You can't fly, you can't dance."

These boots are made from the animals that are vital to traditional Athabaskan life--moose skin, caribou skin, and beaver fur. 

That is one thing I love about traditional customs--they tie people to the land so closely. Someone related to them likely shot, processed the meat, skinned the skin, and tanned the hide of these animals so they could be used. It is so much more intimate than mass commercial production. Of course it is also less productive and efficient. Trade offs! 

Beadwork decorations of Sitka rose and forget-me-nots.

And so Chelsea has her marvelous boots! And they keep her warm and make her dance all winter. 

But when the boots get wet in the spring, Chelsea throws them in a cache to hopefully let them dry out before anyone sees that they are wet. Except little creatures find her boots before Chelsea remembers to come back to get them.

When winter came again....

Chelsea went to find her boots. And instead of the beautiful boots her grandmother had made, she found damaged and ruined boots.

When she confesses all to Sitsu, Sitsu hugs her and tells her she can repair them. 

They are ready for dancing again for the potlatch.

And for watching the aurora borealis. 

At the back, there is a brief note from the author about Athabaskan traditions Chelsea experiences in the book and a glossary for terms.