Books

Holiday books give kids a taste of Alaska wildlife, culture

Holiday shopping is upon us, and for those with youngsters on their lists, there's a bumper crop of new children's books with Alaska themes worthy of consideration.

First up, for the youngest ones, comes "Deep in Alaska" (Snowy Owl Books, $12.95), which finds a young boy toting a red sled through the snow near Eagle River. The book combines haiku poetry by Christine Johnson with photographs by Gary Johnson. The boy explores his environment, looking back on his tracks, making a snow angel, digging a hole to hide in and taking a tumble into the powder before finally reaching his objective, a hill to sled down.

Christine Johnson's prose is brief and unobtrusive, perfectly accompanying Gary Johnson's photography, wherein the combination of snow and overcast skies all but washes out other surroundings, rendering the boy's journey an adventure into the deep unknown.

Van Zyle artwork

Also for beginning readers is "Ollie's First Year" (Snowy Owl, $12.95), which follows a river otter from infancy to adulthood. The text by Jonathan London is gently educational about the life cycle of these beloved animals, showing it through the playful behavior of Ollie. He splashes his way in and out of the river and even gets briefly lost for a bit of drama.

Popular Alaska artist Jon Van Zyle provides illustrations, which depend on a few details and the perfect application of colors to convey the various environments Ollie frolics through. The text and artwork in tandem offer kids a sense of the world of otters without overwhelming them, letting their imaginations fill in the gaps.

Van Zyle also supplies artwork for "A King Salmon Journey" (Snowy Owl, $12.95), one of two new books from longtime Fairbanks author and naturalist Debbie S. Miller. This one is written in conjunction with researcher John H. Eiler and follows a salmon named Chinook as she makes her way from the Bering Sea up the Yukon to her spawning ground on the Nisutlin River in Canada. Along the way she passes villages, numerous tributaries and other wildlife, avoiding fish wheels, bears and wrong turns.

This book is intended for slightly older readers than the previous two, and is more for educational purposes than simple entertainment. Hence it contains a wealth of information on salmon, the authors don't shy away from big words like anadromous and osmoregulation and Van Zyle's artwork is bit busier than that contained in "Ollie," with people, obstacles (both natural and man-made), other critters, maps and more passing through the pages.

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Alaska bears

Miller's other offering, "Grizzly Bears of Alaska" (Little Bigfoot, $16.99), is similarly educational, though with slightly fewer details. Featuring work by Fairbanks photographer Patrick Endres, the book explores the bears of Denali and Katmai national parks.

In simple text, Miller explains what bears do and why, as well as what they need to survive. Photos by Endres will be enjoyed by kids and adults, especially a dramatic scene of a standing sow with three cubs silhouetted by sunlight reflecting off a river, some playful cub quarreling and the quintessential shot of a salmon leaping from a river and into a waiting bear's mouth.

Triplet cubs starred in "The Three Bears," the first children's book by photographer John Schwieder and his partner Cindy Kumle, in 2010. The couple returns with a follow-up titled "Moose in May" (self-published, $19.95), which documents the first week in the lives of a pair of twins in the foothills of the Chugach Mountains.

Schwieder and Kumle unintentionally happened upon their birth in the spring of 2013, and Schwieder, rapidly emerging as one of Alaska's finest photographers, returned to the site for seven days to capture the development of the newborns as they got up and moving.

Schwieder's photographs capture the moose family nicely, while Kumle's text is divided into a main part that tells the story of how the calves faced their initial challenges -- including a late-season snow -- and side comments that provide more educational details. It's a nice approach that makes the book accessible for the youngest readers while offering slightly older kids something more to consider.

Wolf and porcupine

For kids hitting chapter books for the first time, "Pup & Pokey" (Snowy Owl, $14.95) tells the story of a young wolf and a young porcupine who live near each other and playfully interact. Author Seth Kantner is taking more liberties with wildlife realities than the previous authors, but kids are smart enough to recognize this.

As the story progresses, first Pokey gets cornered under a trapper's cabin by his dog and has to be rescued by Pup, then the favor is returned when Pup gets caught in a trap. The artwork by Beth Hill is beautiful. Alaskans inclined towards more consumptive outdoor activities will be happy to see the trapper presented not as a villain but simply as part of the natural order of things.

Running a bit longer still is "The Adventures of Barefoot and Boofoot" (Eleven Books, $14.99), the first book from Romey Atchley, who lives in Nowitna National Wildlife Refuge, a 2.1-million-acre parcel in Interior Alaska, and who shows great promise as a children's author.

The story follows a young boy named Barefoot who lives with his parents in a remote cabin and who has numerous friends among neighboring animals. The action takes place one morning when he helps out a cantankerous old beaver, reunites a baby hare with its mother, falls into a river and gets rescued and befriended by a lone caribou named Boofoot and a nearby homesteader. The animals all talk, and Atchley skillfully creates their diverse characters while peppering the tale with puns, creative use of old cliches and a bit of philosophy. It's a fine story for early-grade schoolchildren and adults alike.

Plenty of other Alaska books are out there for children, so consider this list merely a starting point. Get the kids reading about this place, then get them outdoors to experience it.

David A. James is a Fairbanks-based writer and critic.

David James

David A. James is a Fairbanks-based freelance writer, and editor of the Alaska literary collection “Writing on the Edge.” He can be reached at nobugsinak@gmail.com.

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