Synopses & Reviews
Against the backdrop of the great Bristol Bay salmon fishery, thirteen-year-old Zoey Morley struggles with her parents divorce, her moms bush-pilot boyfriend, and the pangs of growing up during her summer in the “real” Alaska. Author Annie Boochever tells a compelling tale of a divided family living a remote lifestyle where getting along as a team is a matter of survival. Zoey learns to trust the artist inside her and finds she and her new friend Thomas have something in common. Readers will live the lessons learned and taught by this young girl who finds that hard work, compassion, and the ability to see things in her own special way lead her toward happiness in a place that at first seems just too far away.
Bristol Bay is the worlds largest salmon fishery.
Teachers will like the fact that Bristol Bay Summer includes a map of Western Alaska and a glossary of colloquial expressions and fishing terms.
Offers a rare glimpse into an Alaskan fishing villages way of life.
Review
"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
Review
"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
Review
"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)
Review
"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
Review
"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
Review
BRISTOL BAY SUMMER is a recipient of the prestigious Mom's Choice Award. The Mom's Choice Awards® (MCA) evaluates products and services created for parents and educators and is globally recognized for establishing the benchmark of excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. Using a rigorous evaluation process, entries are scored on a number of elements including production quality, design, educational value, entertainment value, originality, appeal and cost. Around the world, parents, educators, retailers and members of the media trust the MCA Honoring Excellence seal when selecting quality products and services for families and children.
Synopsis
Against the backdrop of the great Bristol Bay salmon fishery, thirteen-year-old Zoey struggles with her parents divorce and the pangs of growing up during her summer in the “real” Alaska. My Bristol Bay Summer churns with the energy of an Alaska set net fishery in this authentic and compelling tale of a divided family living a remote lifestyle where getting along as a team is a matter of survival.
About the Author
Annie Boochever is a lifelong Alaskan and the author of the middle-grade Alaskan adventure novel
Bristol Bay Summer, published by Alaska Northwest Books. In addition to teaching high school English, she was an elementary music teacher and librarian for many years, during which time she wrote and produced award-winning musical plays for her students. Her play,
Goodbye My Island, adapted from the book of the same name by Jean Rogers, was produced by The Alaska Theater of Youth. It premiered at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium in Anchorage and later toured all the way to New Zealand.
The Woman Carried Away By The Killer Whales was written in collaboration with the Sealaska Heritage Institute and produced by Perseverance Theatre during their Summer Theatre Arts Rendezvous (STAR) youth theater program. Annies poem “Sestina to Paul Allen's Yacht” was selected to represent Alaska in the young adult literary journal,
YARN, and her essay “A Promise Is A Promise” won First Place in the Pacific Northwest Excellence in Journalism Competition.
Annie earned a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. She is currently developing Our Ancestors Stories: Readers Theater Adaptations of Southeast Alaska Native Legends from the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian in collaboration with the Sealaska Heritage Institute.
Annie lives in Juneau, with her husband Scott Miller. They have four grown children and a frighteningly intelligent Dutch dog named ZZ, but thats another story. Bristol Bay Summer is her first novel.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Departure
Chapter 2 - Last Stop
Chapter 3 - Latrine Business
Chapter 4 - Chez Jensen-Morley
Chapter 5 - Night Visitors
Chapter 6 - A New Boy
Chapter 7 - Darth Vader
Chapter 8 - Colorado Honey
Chapter 9 - Thomas to the Rescue
Chapter 10 - Crossing the Bar
Chapter 11 - Naknek
Chapter 12 - Knives and Fur Hats for Sale
Chapter 13 - Captain
Chapter 14 - A Gift
Chapter 15 - Patrick
Chapter 16 - Fishing Begins
Chapter 17 - Bag Balm?
Chapter 18 - Solstice
Chapter 19 -Blue Skies and Brown Bears
Chapter 20 - Midnight
Chapter 21 - Dancing with Mosquitoes
Chapter 22 - A Not So Happy Birthday
Chapter 23 - Pay Day
Chapter 24 - Dillingham
Chapter 25 - Birds Eye View
Chapter 26 - Midnight
Chapter 27 - Refuge
Chapter 28 - After the Storm
Chapter 29 - An Uncertain Good Bye
Chapter 30 - Dad
Chapter 31 - Something to Think About
Chapter 32 - Fish and More Fish
Chapter 33 - Itll Work Out
Chapter 34 - Ghosts in the Water
Chapter 35 - Home Again