Synopses & Reviews
This is a mother's story about raising her two boys in Alaska were wilderness is just out the back door of their home. Written with wit, wisdom, and a grateful heart, A Tender Distance presents fifteen finely-crafted vignettes that explore the perils and joys of raising two fearless boys from toddlerhood to young men. Mothers everywhere will relate to the hard, familiar choice between holding close and letting go.
Review
""A Tender Distance is written with a calm, deep grace. It is a poenm of a book, usffused wsiht courage, sadness, and beauty.""
---Richard Goodman, Author of French Dirt, The Story of a Garden in the South of France and Soul of Creative Writing.
Review
"Presents parenting on a 'high-voltage tightrope' between adventure and safety in rugged conditions." ---Foreword Footnotes
Synopsis
A Tender Distance presents fifteen finely-crafted vignettes that explore the perils and joys of raising two fearless boys from toddlerhood to young men.
A Tender Distance is a memoir about motherhood and raising children in Alaska, where a vast wilderness shaped the people they would someday become. When Kaylene Johnson and her family moved to the Last Frontier, she was thrilled with the spectacular setting of their new life. But she was also unsettled by the risks she never before had to consider. Moose regularly frequented the school bus stop and bears seasonally sauntered through their yard. Her story begins with the leave-taking of her oldest son, as she considers this new season in all of their lives and reflects on family, faith, and what it means to be a mother. Written with wit, wisdom, and a grateful heart, this is a mother's story about raising her two boys in Alaska where wilderness is just out the back door of their home.
Synopsis
Written with wit, wisdom, and a grateful heart, A Tender Distance presents fifteen finely-crafted vignettes that explore the perils and joys of raising two fearless boys from toddlerhood to young men. Mothers everywhere will relate to the hard, familiar choice between holding close and letting go.
Presents parenting on a 'high-voltage tightrope' between adventure and safety in rugged conditions.
--Foreword Footnotes
A Tender Distance is written with a calm, deep grace. It is a poem of a book, infused with courage, sadness, and beauty.
--Richard Goodman, author of French Dirt, The Story of a Garden in the South of France and Soul of Creative Writing.
This is a mother's story about raising her two boys in Alaska were wilderness is just out the back door of their home. Written with wit, wisdom, and a grateful heart, A Tender Distance presents fifteen finely-crafted vignettes that explore the perils and joys of raising two fearless boys from toddlerhood to young men. Mothers everywhere will relate to the hard, familiar choice between holding close and letting go.
About the Author
Kaylene Johnson is author of six books about Alaska and the people who live there. She is also a longtime Alaskan. Her books include the New York Times Bestseller, Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down; Canyons and Ice: The Wilderness Travels of Dick Griffith; Portrait of the Alaska Railroad; Trails Across Time History of an Alaskan Mountain Corridor and her memoir A Tender Distance: Adventures Raising My Sons in Alaska. Her award-winning articles and essays have appeared in Alaska Magazine, the Louisville Review, The Los Angeles Times, Spirit, and other publications. She holds a BA from Vermont College, and an MFA in Writing from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 9
Rendevous Peak 11
Genesis 23
Moose Meadow 37
First Salmon 51
Mount Baldy 65
Breakup 75
Porcupine Promises 87
Symphony Lake 97
Faith Falls 107
Devil's Pass 121
Kesugi Ridge 133
As Hours Will 153
Ghost Bear 163
Mount Marathon 179
Epilogue Wild Boys 195