Sweet Home Alaska

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 construction delays to their own 40 acres and a farmhouse, the Johnson family gradually discover the riches and possibilities of their new environment. Terpsichore and two equally spunky and enterprising new friends form a "library action committee" to bring books into the community. Hoping to ensure her musical mother's willingness to stay in Alaska, Terpsichore secretly buys a piano with money earned from growing a giant, prize-winning pumpkin and publishing a cookbook of unique local recipes. Resilience, togetherness, and civility are unshakable family values. Authentic references to the 1930s abound: an FDR Fireside Chat, Shirley Temple curls, the measles epidemic, a visit to Palmer by celebrity Will Rogers, and the challenges faced by the Matanuska colonists. Fact and fiction and real and imagined personalities and events are seamlessly woven into this quaint, energetic, and engaging story.