Arctic Danger

In case you can't tell by reading my previous blog posts, I read books for kids all the time.

When I read Arctic Danger by Barbara Bockman I was reminded of books from my childhood that told about kids being sent off by their parents into possibly dangerous situations without adult supervision. But I guess in Alaska near the Arctic Circle there weren't any child predators and gangsters around, and the kids in the story, Gary and Kiana, certainly knew how to paddle a kayak down a river to the store.

I guess for them doing so was no more unusual than for kids in cities to walk to school.

But this time it was a lot more dangerous than usual. The kids encounter an oil leak in the Alaska Pipeline!

The oil is falling from an overhead pipe above the river and animals are panicking.

Gary manages to protect his sister from a crazed moose and the kids see other dead and harmed animals as they rush to the store. They tell the store owner, who calls the oil company and gets the flow turned off.

It would take some time for the crew to repair the leak and a lot of damage had already been done, but the kids managed to save many more animals from being harmed and killed.

They were heroes!

This book is fiction, but there are several pages of facts about the Alaska Pipeline at the end.

The illustrator, Eugene Ruble, did a good job of portraying the story.