Alaskana for Children:
New Book Titles for Young Alaskans
Page Two
 Cool Woods: A Trip Around the World’s Boreal Forest. Drake, Jane and Ann Love. Illustrated by Andrew Kiss. Tundra Books, 2003. Grades 5-8.
An informational book that includes Alaska’s interior boreal forest and depicts the flora and fauna as well as human activity with detailed paintings as well as black-and-white sketches.
Eight Stars of Gold, The Story of Alaska’s Flag, Spartz, India, Alaska State Museums, 2001.Traveling Exhibitions Program, 2001. Grades 4-6.
More than a catalog for a State Museum exhibition, this 24-page book documents Benny Benson’s achievement and even shows some entries by other children who submitted entries in the 1927 flag design competition. See what Alaska’s flag might have been and see Benny’s alternate design. Historical photos are well used to illustrate the story.
Enticed by Gold. DeVries, Douglas. Jade Ram Publishing, 2003. Grades 6-8.
This historical novel based on the founding of Fairbanks is the third in a trilogy about Sven Olafsen’s search for his father in Alaska at the turn of the last century. The first two titles are Gold Rush Runaway and Fevering for Gold.
Free Radical, Murphy, Claire Rudolf, Clarion, 2002.Grades 9-12.
A novel for young adults that begins when 15-year old Luke McHenfy finds that his determination to be a Fairbanks baseball star is disrupted by a shocking revelation by his mother.
 The Giant Cabbage: An Alaska Folktale. Stihler, Cherie. Illustrated by Jeremiah Tramwell. Sasquatch/Paws IV, 2003. Preschool-Primary.
This is a modern “folk tale” that features a hungry, overalls-wearing moose who needs help getting a giant cabbage to a fair that might just look familiar to folks in the Tanana Valley. It is loosely based on the Russian tale of the giant turnip.
Gold Rush Dogs, Murphy, Claire Rudolf, and Jane G. Haigh, Alaska Northwest, 2001.All ages.
Illustrated with historical black and white photos and based on intrepid historical research, this is a title no dog-loving Alaskan child or adult will want to miss. Study guide
Gold Rush Winter. Murphy, Claire Rudolf. Illustrated by Richard Waldrep. Golden Books, 2002. Grades 2-4.
Based on the early life of the author of Daughter of the Gold Rush, this first chapter book is part of the “Road to Reading” series and tells what it was like for young Klondy Nelson to live in an interior mining camp.
 The Great Serum Race: Blazing the Iditarod Trail. Miller, Debbie S. Illustrations by Jon Van Zyle. Walker, 2002. All ages.
The story of the 1925 race to save the residents of Nome from disaster during a diphtheria outbreak is a story all Alaskans know, but this telling in pictures and words will bring history alive.
 Additional New Book Titles
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