Bristol Bay Summer

Annie Boochever grew up in the days when Alaska was still a territory. People flocked here for a new life and a kind of freedom that wasn’t available in the Lower 48. Today Alaska is still a magnet for anyone seeking adventure or just trying to escape, and the characters in Bristol Bay Summer are no exception. The story told in Bristol Bay Summer, seen through the eyes of young teen Zoey Morely, is a fictionalized version of Annie's own experiences in Bristol Bay in 1980. Annie is a retired music teacher, high school English teacher, and school librarian. She has an MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. When not writing, Annie loves to swim, ski, play piano, and garden. She lives in Juneau with her husband and a frightfully intelligent Dutch dog named Zz. Bristol Bay Summer is her first novel.

"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

• Maps1. Departure2. Last Stop3. Latrine Business4. Chez Jensen-Morley5. Night Visitors6. A New Boy7. Darth Vader8. Colorado Honey9. Thomas to the Rescue10. Naknek11. Knives and Fur Hats for Sale12. Captain13. A Gift14. Patrick15. Fishing Begins16. Rulers of the World17. Bag Balm18. A Cake in the Coleman?19. Blue Skies and Brown Bears20. Swallowed a Lead Line21. Dancing with Mosquitoes22. A Not So Happy Birthday23. Payday24. Dillingham25. So Many Fish26. Midnight27. Japanese Typhoon28. Refuge29. After the Storm30. An Uncertain Good-bye31. Dad32. Crash Position33. MayDay! MayDay34. It’ll Work Out35. Ghosts in the Water36. Home AgainGlossaryAcknowledgmentsDiscussion Questions