This picture book recalls a dramatic journey in the Alaskan wilderness for naturalist John Muir (who spent part of his childhood and his young adulthood in Wisconsin) and a small dog named Stickeen. When John leaves camp early one morning, Stickeen, who belongs to a friend of Muir, eagerly accompanies him. By late in the day, they are far from camp, and a storm is starting to rage. Stickeen’s paws are bleeding, and Muir wraps them. Deadly crevasses and chasms loom darkly in the swirling white. Muir jumps one chasm that’s eight feet across, and Stickeen follows. Then another chasm appears—fifty feet wide—with only a narrow bridge of ice on which to cross. Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff’s present-tense narrative is punctuated by short, explosive sentences that underscore the senese of excitement, danger, and drama in this thrilling story that does end happily. Karl Swanson’s artwork captures a sense of the cold, wintry conditions both man and dog faced. An author’s note explains that Muir himself wrote about this, his favorite adventure, in his book Stickeen. (Ages 5–9)

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