Juggling Fire

( 1 )

Overview

Rachel's idyllic existence with her family in the remote mountain passes of northern Yukon was shattered by her father's depression, the family's relocation to ìtownî and her father's subsequent disappearance. Obsessed with understanding why her father never returned, Rachel hikes with her dog across mountain passes and along valleys to her childhood home. As she walks, she distracts herself from her anxiety by reinventing fairy tales remembered from her childhood. As the days pass, the imaginary quest begins to ...
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Juggling Fire

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More About This Book

Overview

Rachel's idyllic existence with her family in the remote mountain passes of northern Yukon was shattered by her father's depression, the family's relocation to ìtownî and her father's subsequent disappearance. Obsessed with understanding why her father never returned, Rachel hikes with her dog across mountain passes and along valleys to her childhood home. As she walks, she distracts herself from her anxiety by reinventing fairy tales remembered from her childhood. As the days pass, the imaginary quest begins to echo her own journey as she confronts danger, faces loneliness and unearths the truth about her father.
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Editorial Reviews

TriState YA Book Review
"The descriptions of Alaska are poetic. The writing style is sublime...Will appeal to readers of all ages."
CM Magazine
"Readers are on a wilderness trek which is so clearly described it seems just metres away A wonderful tale which will appeal to both male and female young adult readers Highly recommended."
ALAN's Picks
"The narrative structure weaves together several strands of past, present, and fantasy to create a rich portrait of a young woman on the brink of adulthood. The setting is vividly described throughout, with rich local color and concise details about the flora and fauna of the Yukon. The novel also earns high marks for its sensitive treatment of depression and family life."
Puget Sound Council for Reviewing Children's Media
"The writing is suspenseful as Rachel and Brooks deal with bears, wolves, and other dangers, yet it is also whimsical with fairy tales woven in, juggling, poems, and the beauty of the Yukon. Recommend for both school and public libraries."
School Library Journal
Gr 7–10—Sixteen-year-old Rachel's father disappeared years earlier from her family's home in the Yukon wilderness and was assumed dead. Having finished high school, the teen sets off on a trek through the tundra and forest with only her dog as a companion, hoping to find clues about her father's disappearance at the cabin where she lived as a child. Rachel's main interest aside from juggling is memorizing and rewriting fairy tales, which are woven into the main narrative as a story within a story. Finally, she is able to come to terms with her grief and find her own happy ending. Bell beautifully captures the natural world through descriptions of the mountainous terrain as well as nail-biting encounters with bears and wolves. Rachel is a smart, resourceful narrator who nevertheless struggles with the challenges nature throws her way, as well as balancing her own needs and those of her dog. Like Gary Paulsen's Hatchet (Bradbury, 1987) and Ben Mikaelsen's Touching Spirit Bear (HarperCollins, 2001), this book will appeal to readers looking for an outdoor adventure, though it's a quieter, more contemplative read.—Jennifer Barnes, formerly at Homewood Library, IL
Children's Literature - Jennifer Lehmann
Rachel has been planning this trip for years. Her family moved to town from the Canadian bush when she was six, hoping to help her father's depression. He went back to their cabin, still fighting depression, and never returned. Rachel's mother and sister Becky have accepted his disappearance as his death, but Rachel needs to seek her own answers. She sets out with her dog Brooks to follow her father to their cabin and try to find him or clues as to what happened. Her journey is one of hardship in the wild. She must deal with injury, danger, and loneliness with nothing but what she has carried with her. In her thoughts, she shares what she knows about the Yukon, juggling, and fairytales, connecting each to her experiences poetically. She retells fairytales she loves but includes her own endings. These tales are woven throughout the story, set apart by a different font. The font distinction works well for this purpose, but a third font used for flashbacks is confusing and unnecessary. Rachel's story is told in the present tense, keeping suspense and danger alive, but also clearly distinguishing her past from her present. The stream-of-consciousness narrative is engaging and realistic, though Rachel's emotions sometimes flip quickly enough to be confusing. The depth of this character and her grief are fully explored and beautifully depicted. Reviewer: Jennifer Lehmann
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781554690947
  • Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
  • Publication date: 10/1/2009
  • Pages: 184
  • Age range: 11 - 18 Years
  • Product dimensions: 5.00 (w) x 7.50 (h) x 0.50 (d)

Meet the Author

Born in Great Britain, Joanne Bell grew up in New Brunswick and Alberta. She visited Dawson City, Yukon, many years ago and fell in love with the nearby Ogilvie Mountains, where she spent years running dogs, hiking, canoeing and living in log cabins. Now married with two daughters, she works as a naturalist in the summers and is a substitute teacher in Dawson City whenever she is not in the mountains. She spends as much time as possible in her log cabin about twenty miles from the Dempster Highway.
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Read an Excerpt

The forest about me is absolutely still.

I shoot.

I shoot at the ground before the bear's massive paws. A scuff of snow flies up. In the next moment I lean the rifle against a tree trunk and grab my bear spray from my coat pocket where I've kept it warm. I pull off the safety clip, and this time I walk toward the bear.

Not away. I'm through with walking away.

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Table of Contents

Part 1 Into That Good Night

Chapter 1 Juggling Fire 1

Chapter 2 Right on Rolling 17

Chapter 3 So What is a Bear? 30

Chapter 4 A Grizzled Bear 45

Chapter 5 Imposing Order 56

Chapter 6 Building on Permafrost 60

Chapter 7 Panic 67

Chapter 8 In the Dungeon 77

Chapter 9 Moving on 86

Chapter 10 In the forest 96

Chapter 11 Cleaning this Room 105

Part 2 The Wind Passes Over it

Chapter 12 Pirates in the Night 115

Chapter 13 The Grayling Corral 125

Chapter 14 Wounds 134

Chapter 15 Clues 142

Chapter 16 Undercurrents 149

Chapter 17 The Snow Queen 155

Chapter 18 In the End 162

Epilogue 168

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Customer Reviews

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Sort by: Showing 1 Customer Review

  • Posted June 13, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Reviewed by Kira M for TeensReadToo

    16-year-old Rachel's father left her house years earlier and never came back. Her mother says her father died out in the wilderness, but she doesn't believe her. After finishing high school early, she sets out to retrace the steps her father would've taken and looks for clues as to his disappearance. Taking only her dog, food, and her talent for juggling and telling stories, she'll have to survive the wild, bears, and much more if she ever wants to find out the truth. Will she succeed? What really happened to her father all those years ago? The main character is well-developed and believable, and although the plot is slow in some places, it does a good job of holding the reader's interest. The intricate weaving of past and present is well done and doesn't confuse the reader. JUGGLING FIRE is a quick, easy read for those who like survival stories like HATCHET by Gary Paulsen and MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN by Jean Craighead George, as well as adventure and realistic tales.

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