Winter Camp

by Kirkpatrick Hill

Overview

Winter Camp is Kirkpatrick Hill's must-read sequel to Toughboy and Sister following a young boy and his sister and their story of survival.

In Winter Camp an eleven-year-old Toughboy and his younger sister must survive the harsh Alaskan winter at a friend's winter trapping camp.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689505881
Publisher:	Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication date:	10/31/1993
Edition description:	1st ed
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Kirkpatrick Hill lives in Fairbanks, Alaska. She was an elementary school teacher for more than thirty years, most of that time in the Alaskan bush. Hill is the mother of six children and the grandmother of eight. Her books Toughboy and Sister, Winter Camp, and The Year of Miss Agnes have all been immensely popular. Her fourth book, Dancing at the Odinochka, was a Junior Library Guild Selection.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 4-6-Following the deaths of their parents, Toughboy and Sister are tended to by an old woman in their Alaskan village. Although gruff and short on praise and affection, Natasha is wise in the ``old ways'' of the Athabascan Indians, and instructs the children through stories about bygone days and by taking them to a winter trapping camp. As in the earlier Toughboy and Sister (McElderry, 1990), the children mature, yet show instances of behavior and thought that reveal the impulsiveness of their youth (ages seven and nine). Hill's description of life and work at the camp is straightforward and unsentimental, a blend of beauty and blunt reality that is reflected in Sister's mixed feelings about trapping. Again, the children must learn to survive under trying circumstances, this time when Natasha leaves them to seek help for a wounded trapper in the midst of harsh winter weather. Familiarity with the first book is not required. A spare but compelling story of survival and the growth of two very resilient but sensitive children.-Susan Knorr, Milwaukee Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

In a dramatic sequel to "Toughboy and Sister" (1990), the recently orphaned children live with Natasha, an elderly, cantankerous Athabascan Indian. John (Toughboy) and Annie Laurie (Sister) respect Natasha but find her clinging to the old ways and her disparaging remarks about the pair's softness hard to swallow. In late fall she abruptly has them all flown to camp in a bush plane to teach the children how to trap and deal with the Alaskan winter. They are awed by Natasha's stamina and knowledge of the wilderness. Things gradually become almost routine, then an old miner friend is seriously injured by a moose. When Natasha sets off by dogsled for help, the children find their spirit pushed to the limit. Hill slowly and carefully sets the stage and then accelerates the pace for a thoroughly satisfying story. Told mostly in narrative, the book conveys a realistic starkness that reflects classic conflicts--humankind against nature, old ways against new. The bitter cold seeps from the pages, making the reader shiver--evidence of effective writing. Read independently or as a sequel, this is one adventure youngsters won't put down until they finish.

Deborah Abbott