Guardians of the Glacier
By Tim Saunders (TAE Publishing, $24.95)
The blurb: Mary and Jon are uprooted from their Alaska home by Earth-bound extraterrestrials called Tirins, who thrust this mother and her young boy into a quest for survival.
Excerpt: "Three mornings ago, I had met a really tall blue man who said he was from outer space and needed my help, and that evening CIA Agent Manford and his henchmen turned our house upside down. Even though we were innocent, they'd bugged our house. My mom, Mary, had found the bug in the phone receiver because my dad used to be a special contractor for the government and had informed her concerning things of this nature. She said we'd better leave it in place or else the CIA would cause more trouble. It was depressing; our safe haven was gone. Our home was now violated, gloomy, and impersonal--torn from assault"
Melozi: A Teenager's Search for a Summer Job Lands Him an Adventure in the Alaska Bush
By Michael D. Travis (Publication Consultants, $19.95)
The blurb: On June 9, 1973, 16-year-old Michael Travis put an advertisement in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner looking for work and eventual found himself building a lodge at Melozi Hot Springs, a remote camp north of the Yukon River.
Excerpt: "I watched Happy patrol the boundaries of the camp with military precision. The dog easily weighed a hundred and twenty pounds. His barrel chest and broad back were supported by strong legs. His body shape and gait gave him the appearance of a Sherman tank rolling across the terrain. Pat told me that Happy was half McKenzie Husky and half Norwegian Elkhound. This explained his enormous size, but he looked like he had something else flowing through his veins. His wild eyes and massive head indicated that he was also part wolf."
A Woolly Mammoth Journey
By Debbie S. Miller, illustrated by Jon Van Zyle (University of Alaska Press, $9.95)
The blurb: A pack of woolly mammoths travel their annual migration across rivers, plains and glacial ridges, and a new calf is born along the way.
Excerpt: "As winds lash the top of the world, a family of woolly mammoths travels across the treeless, windswept plain known as the mammoth Steppe. from a distance these shaggy cousins of the elephant look like walking haystacks. Long skirts of fur ripple in the wind, and dense coats of underwool insulate these enormous six-ton creatures.
Facing the wind, with trunks swaying, the mammoths follow Wise One. This fifty-year-old female is the oldest member and matriarch of the family. For many years, she has guided them along familiar trails, across deep rivers, and over ridges fringed with glaciers."
-- Compiled by Matt Sullivan, Anchorage Daily News