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Gr 4–8—Eleven-year-old Terpsichore Johnson is vivacious, inventive, resourceful, and determined to help her family thrive in their new Alaskan home. Unemployment and hunger in the 1930s compel the Johnsons to join an exodus of over 200 upper Midwest families to the New Deal's experimental Matanuska Colony in Palmer, AK. Despite the trauma of leaving Wisconsin friends, her grandmother, and refinements, Terpsichore, her siblings, her upbeat father, and her cultured, skeptical mother meet hardships with adventuresome spirit. From tents, mud, mosquitoes, and c...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

In 1935, after the mill closes in Little Bear Lake, Wisconsin, times are tough for the Johnson family, but Dad, egged on by oldest daughter Terpsichore, is determined to take advantage of President Roosevelt's program to send homesteaders to Alaska. Mother reluctantly agrees to try it until the first full harvest, a little over a year away. Upon their arrival in Palmer, Alaska, however, the project is so far behind schedule that the Johnsons don't even have their own tent to move i...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

When the Johnson family takes advantage of President Roosevelt's program to send homesteaders to Alaska, the whole family--particularly oldest da...Log In or Sign Up to Read More