A year they'll never forgetTen-year-old Frederika (Fred for short) doesn't have much faith that the new teacher in town will last very long. After all, they never do. Most teachers who come to their one-room schoolhouse in remote, Alaska leave at the first smell of fish, claiming that life there is just too hard.But Miss Agnes is different -- she doesn't get frustrated with her students, and she throws away old textbooks and reads Robin Hood instead! For the first time, Fred and her classmates begin to enjoy their lessons and learn to read and write -- but will Miss Agnes be like all the rest and leave as quickly as she came?

Bo's family is not the usual, ordinary sort of family, because she didn't get it in the usual, ordinary way. She was headed for a lonely Alaska orphanage when she won the hearts of two tough gold miners who set out to raise her, enthusiastically helped by the other miners, the good-time girls, and all the kind people of the nearby Eskimo village on the Koyukuk River.Bo learns Eskimo along with English, is involved in the lives of her friends at Ballard Creek ,helps in the cookshack, learns to polka, rides along with Big Annie and her dog team. And there's always some kind of excitement : a bi-plane landing, the first bulldozer, a roaming bear, the dog-team mail delivery, and a lost little boy whose father has died on the winter trail.This is the unforgettable story of a little girl growing up in the exhilarating time after the big Alaska gold rushes.

Deet's world turns upside down when his father is arrested for drug use. It doesn't seem possible that kind, caring Dad could be a criminal! After all, he only took the pills to stay awake so he could work two jobs. Now what will happen? How will Deet be able to face his classmates? Where will they get money? And most importantly, will Dad be okay in prison?Hurt, angry, and ashamed, Deet doesn't want to visit his father in jail. But when Mom goes back to work, Deet starts visiting Dad after school. It's frightening at first, but as he adjusts to the routine, Deet begins to see the prisoners as people with stories of their own, just like his dad. Deet soon realizes that prison isn't the terrifying place of movies and nightmares. In fact, Dad's imprisonment leads Deet to make a few surprising discoveries -- about his father, his friends, and himself.With moving realism, Kirkpatrick Hill brings to light the tumultuous experience of having a parent in jail in this honest and st...