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. 

The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery

This book. This BOOK. Both of my parents loved this book, so it has always been around. And when I read it as a young teen, I fell instantly in love with Valancy and Barney and Barney's cabin in the Ontario wilderness. 

It was one of the first love stories I ever read, so it ended up being a definitive romance. Every story since has been measured up against Valancy and Bernard. I know, I know. NOT romantic names. But they can't be blamed for what their parents called them. 

(Also, wild roses. I took these pictures last June, but never got it posted. Oh for wild rose days! They will be here soon, I guess. But this part of winter always seems to drag....)

Valancy is a sheltered spinster of 29, Bernard the local suspicious person who doesn't care what anyone else thinks. Not caring about what other people thinks in rural Ontario in the early 1900s was a pretty dire statement on someone's character. Clearly a person to steer clear of.  

After Valancy goes to the doctor for a chest pain and finds she has a terminal condition, she flouts her family's expectation and goes to care for a local, unwed mother. While there, she meets Bernard who comes to visit the lonely girl. Bernard is interesting in a way her family never was. Eventually, with a return to her family's home in the offing, Valancy goes to Bernard and proposes to him. She tells him of her terminal condition, which means he would not have to be married for ever. She argues they get along well and she could take care of his house, so why not? Why not indeed?

Much to her family's consternation, Valancy goes junketing off as Bernard's new wife. 

And of course, in the misty, purple evenings on a tiny island in a lake in Ontario, Bernard and Valancy become the best of friends and slowly begin to realize they are in love.

A little melodramatic, but oh! Going against society, finding a kindred spirit, a private island no matter how tiny, and a dramatic ending---how could I not love this book? 

There are times in this book that Lucy Maud talks a little too much. Some of the family chatter at the beginning seems a bit excessive. But it is entirely worthwhile to overlook these minor flaws. 

If you haven't already read this, give yourself a treat and do so. If you have already read it, give yourself another treat and read it over. I think I have read it about ten times.  

The Eyes of Gray Wolf by Jonathan London & Illus by Jon Van Zyle

This is another book I found in the Loussac Library in Anchorage this summer. And since there is a love interest, I figured it would be a good book for Valentine's week.

Jon Van Zyle has been the official artist of the Iditarod since 1979, so he is pretty well experienced in drawing Alaskan landscapes and dogs. The storyline itself is pretty straightforward. I mean, it is about wolves, so it is a little difficult to get in depth with characterization. 

However, the pictures make this a stand out. 

Grey Wolf is a little preoccupied. He has lost his mate to a man's steel trap.

oooh! I just love his art work. And poor old Grey wolf all alone under a super moon apparently. 

Howling at the moon-- A wild untamed music.

Trying to catch dinner, but....

Shadows show that he is not alone.

The leader of the pack. AND his fur is black. I guess the black sheep is the one with the reputation, but a black wolf seems like a tough character. 

And suddenly, grey wolf sees a white wolf. A white wolf who just happens to be looking for a mate. 

When you are a wolf, dating isn't really a thing. You're single? Me too! Let's get together. 

Wolves don't mess around with superfluous nonsense. 

At the end of the book there is a page with information about wolves. This is the decreasing wolf range. Clearly wolves didn't like American settlers and all moved north. Or something....

Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell

When this won the Caldecott last year, I read this book and... didn't quite get it. The illustrations were somewhat primitive and almost too simple. 

The story was also somewhat simplistic with apparently no character development. 

What was the big deal here?  

Last month, on a whim I picked it up again to read to my Pre-K class. They had been pretty antsy the past few days and I decided going with a wordless book would be great since I could speed through it or linger over it depending on their behavior. 

The Pre-K teacher warned me as she dropped them off that they were having a little bit of a hard day. 

So I decided I was going to speed through this book. But I couldn't help asking them a few questions.

What do you see in this picture? 

This little girl seems to be going somewhere, but her parents aren't. Where could she be going? Where do you go while your parents stay home? (School--surprisingly, this stumped them!)

As she leaves school, what is happening?  

What do you notice is different about one of these wolves? 

What is happening in this picture? 

Before I had gotten very far into the book, I suddenly realized the entire class was captivated. 

The story was simple enough they could understand it. The words being used to talk about each picture were often words they themselves came up with, so were understandable. 

I asked them about the emotions of each character. 

How were they feeling? 

One of the big questions the students really got into was--What would you do in this situation? Would you bring the baby wolf to his or her mother or bring the baby wolf home? 

The real dangers my rural students could enter into

Oh my goodness. This picture and...

....this one are so evocative of surprise and uncertainty. 

One emotion my students had a hard time identifying was relief. However, when I told them it was the feeling you have when you look up and don't see your Mom or Dad near you in the store and get scared and then turn around and see them right behind you; scared, but then glad, they understood it. 

Exhaustion sets in as night falls and the little girl heads home. 

Her family and dog are looking for her, but they are still far away.

What do you think the wolves are going to do to her? 

The gentleness of the wolves was a surprise.

Again, we talked about relief. 

And coziness. 

We spent over 15 minutes pouring over this book and discussing it in detail. And the students were completely absorbed in the drama and the possibilities in the story. 

And now, I am deeply in love with this book. I love it. Adore it. 

I think it is a book you need to spend time with. The lack of words leaves so much up to the reader. The first time I looked at it, I flipped through it quickly and missed the potential depth. 

But taking a little time, you see so much more. 

The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau & Illus by Gail de Marcken

Oh....! This book. I love it so. 

I remember reading it for the first time years ago and I didn't love it. It seemed complicated and melodramatic and over-the-top. But picking it up again lately, I loved it. 

I have no idea what this says about me or the book, but there you have it. 

Quilt patterns

The Quiltmaker lives in the mountains, creating beautiful quilts seemingly out of natural materials. 

Rich people try to buy her magnificent quilts, but the quiltmaker will not sell them. 

Instead, she finds a needy soul in the nearby city and gives him or her the quilt. 

The local, greedy king has everything heart could desire. Literally. There he is in the bottom left hand corner, being covered up by all this things. 

Oh, the things to look at on these pages. 

The king asked for a quilt, but was refused. So he did the reasonable thing and sent an army to the Quiltmaker to forcibly take a quilt from her. 

The quiltmaker did the reasonable thing and let her quilt float away on the wind. 

So the king chained her up in front of a bear cave. 

(Reasonableness is a theme in this book.)

Of course, the king felt so bad he woke the army up early in the morning and make them march in their pajamas to rescue the quiltmaker. The quiltmaker and her charmingness won over the bear and they were having a companionable breakfast together. 

Which enraged the king again. 

So the king sent her to the tiniest island in the world. But of course, the quiltmaker's generosity and kindness saves her once again. 

(There is a small possibility this book is melodramatic.) 

Finally the king is willing to do what he needs to do to get a quilt. 

He starts giving away his things. 

As difficult as the first gift was, it got easier as he went along. 

Soon he was traveling far and wide giving everything away.

Everytime he gave something away, a small sparrow would fly back to the quiltmaker to tell her he had given away another possession. 

And for every gift he made, the quiltmaker sewed a new stitch.

When finally the king had given everything away, the quiltmaker found him. 

And the king was then in the condition that he could receive the most magnificent quilt the quiltmaker had ever made.