Maps
1. Departure
2. Last Stop
3. Latrine Business
4. Chez Jensen-Morley
5. Night Visitors
6. A New Boy
7. Darth Vader
8. Colorado Honey
9. Thomas to the Rescue
10. Naknek
11. Knives and Fur Hats for Sale
12. Captain
13. A Gift
14. Patrick
15. Fishing Begins
16. Rulers of the World
17. Bag Balm
18. A Cake in the Coleman?
19. Blue Skies and Brown Bears
20. Swallowed a Lead Line
21. Dancing with Mosquitoes
22. A Not So Happy Birthday
23. Payday
24. Dillingham
25. So Many Fish
26. Midnight
27. Japanese Typhoon
28. Refuge
29. After the Storm
30. An Uncertain Good-bye
31. Dad
32. Crash Position
33. MayDay! MayDay
34. It’ll Work Out
35. Ghosts in the Water
36. Home Again
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Discussion Questions
Annie Boochever grew up in the days when Alaska was still a
territory. People flocked here for a new life and a kind of freedom
that wasn’t available in the Lower 48. Today Alaska is still a
magnet for anyone seeking adventure or just trying to escape, and
the characters in Bristol Bay Summer are no exception. The story
told in Bristol Bay Summer, seen through the eyes of young teen
Zoey Morely, is a fictionalized version of Annie's own experiences
in Bristol Bay in 1980.
Annie is a retired music teacher, high school English teacher, and
school librarian. She has an MFA in Creative Writing for Children
and Young Adults from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts.
When not writing, Annie loves to swim, ski, play piano, and garden.
She lives in Juneau with her husband and a frightfully intelligent
Dutch dog named Zz. Bristol Bay Summer is her first novel.
"In Boochever’s debut middle-grade novel, a reluctant young girl
coping with her parents’ breakup becomes part of the fishing
community at Alaska’s Bristol Bay.
After her parents’ divorce, 13-year-old Zoey Morley left her home
in Colorado to follow her mother and little brother to Anchorage,
Alaska. Now, a year later, she still hasn’t heard from her father
and must leave the city (and her best friend) to spend the summer
at Bristol Bay, so that her mother’s boyfriend can make money
transporting salmon in a rickety old Cessna plane. Despite Zoey’s
anger at being uprooted again, and her unwillingness to accept
Patrick as part of her family, she gradually begins to appreciate
the rugged beauty of Bristol Bay and the hardworking people who
earn their living fishing there. She starts to settle in when she
meets Thomas Gamble, a native boy who lost his father in a tragic
fishing accident. The Gambles give Zoey a job with Thomas, running
setnets to catch salmon, and she hatches a plan to save enough
money to fly to Colorado and find her father. However, after a
horrific accident, she must reevaluate her relationship with
Patrick and what it really means to be a family. Boochever suffuses
her tale with the kind of vivid details only a longtime Alaskan
could know, from her descriptions of the majestic landscape to the
finer points of commercial salmon fishing. She has a gift for
drawing readers in, and a penchant for bringing the details of
character’s experiences to life, as in this description of Zoey
cleaning up after her first fishing experience: “The bulky clothing
felt even heavier and definitely stinkier as Zoey shrugged herself
out of the grimy rubber pants and let them fall on the ground near
the door.” At the same time, the book delivers scenes of action and
suspense in a wholly realistic, organic way.
A wonderfully atmospheric debut." —Kirkus Reviews
"When Zoey's parents divorce, her dad disappears, and her mom
uproots her—twice. She feels angry and alone. Through the hard work
of living in a wild part of Alaska, she comes to rely on strengths
she never knew she had. She learns compassion for those around her,
coming to understand that their lives are at least as difficult as
her own. This is a powerful story of a girl becoming a woman, a
story of land and sea and artistry." —Peggy Shumaker, Alaska State
Writer Laureate 2010-2012
"Having spent 23 delightful Bristol Bay summers myself, I’m
thrilled that Annie Boochever has written a book that so perfectly
captures both the coming of age of a young adult in this uniquely
Alaskan setting, but more importantly, provides insights into the
profound rich cultural heritage of this fishery. Bristol Bay Summer
is a must-read for anyone—young and old alike—wishing to better
understand the critical importance of the Bristol Bay salmon
fishery to both feeding the world AND feeding the soul!” —Sue
Aspelund, Executive Director, Bristol Bay Regional Seafood
Development Association
"Books about the real Alaska are few and far between. BRISTOL BAY
SUMMER, the newest addition to the canon, is the real thing.
Through the eyes of Alaskan newcomer Zoey Morley, we fall in love
with the power and beauty of Bristol Bay and its people. Annie
Boochever’s prose is as fierce and elemental as the land itself;
her story takes readers to the edge of the cliff and back
again."—Debby Dahl Edwardson, author of My Name is Not Easy
(National Book Award Finalist, A Junior Library Guild Selection;
Best Children's Books of 2011, Washington Post) and Blessing's Bead
(ALA/YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2011. Booklist Top 10
First Novels for Youth: 2010)
“Bristol Bay Summer made me miss Alaska. Its authentic, wonderfully
written story includes the joys and challenges of growing up in the
Last Frontier.” —Jewel, singer-songwriter, author, and proud native
of Homer, Alaska
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