November 6th, 2006 - Good-bye Boise…Hello Alaska and Dear Cora
Good-bye Boise…Hello Alaska and Dear Cora by Cora Holmes are a delightful pair of books about a single Mom with two boys who moved to Alaska to help on a remote ranch. The first book follows a year in their life a few years later after she married the ranch owner. The second was in response to all the letters they received to answer many questions readers had had. The ranch is located on Unalaska island in the Aleutian Island Chain. They are 80 miles from the nearest village, over a mountain range! Usually, they go by plane or boat which is much farther. They grocery shop once every two years. They get mail about 4 times a year. And less snow than Oshkosh.
Enjoyable, simple books. The only disappointment is that I was very frustrated by Cora–she’s scared of horses, scared her boys will drown, scared they’ll get hurt sledding, scared…. There was a lot of this and it was a bit tiring. Why did she move to remote Alaska if she was so scared of everything? But the rest of the stories are delightful. And what a simple life they have to live!