(Ages 9 & up) The Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming J. In Sweet Home Alaska, 11-year-old Terpsichore Johnson embraces her family’s new life with pluck and gusto-she had always dreamed about living like Laura Ingalls Wilder-but her mother is counting down the days until they can return to “civilization.” Determined to change her mother’s mind, Terpsichore hatches a plan that will require hard work, sacrifice, and a little help from her friends. (Apr.At the height of the Depression, President Roosevelt’s New Deal program sent over 200 struggling families to the untamed wilderness of Palmer, Alaska, where they received 40 acres and the chance to become self-sufficient farmers. The journey in itself is amazing, but Dagg's tender portrayal of a mother and daughter who learn to appreciate and forgive each other makes it unforgettable. The pages go by quickly, as the two must continually find food and shelter, relying on each other and the kindness of strangers to survive. Basing her story on the real-life journey her great-aunt and great-grandmother undertook, Dagg masterfully recreates the wild adventures and hardships the women faced, including encounters with Native Americans, a harrowing escape from a raging flood, and a frightening scuffle with a menacing attacker. Inspired by Nellie Bly's trip around the world, Clara's free-spirited but unreliable mother suggests that they walk nearly 4,000 miles to save their farm from foreclosure (a publisher offers them a $10,000 advance if they make it in seven months) and bring attention to the suffragist movement. Bright, hard-working 17-year-old Clara dreads settling down with the steady but lackluster boy wooing her. Debut author Dagg writes a captivating story about the determination of a mother and daughter, who in 1896 walked from Washington State to New York City.
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