This wasn't bad. I requested "A Tender Distance" from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program because it was about a family living in Alaska. I personally would never want to live in Alaska as I do not like being cold, but I'm fascinated by people who choose to live in cold areas. I like nature and knew there's a whole lot of it up in Alaska.

Since Kaylene Johnson had written an uncritical book about Sarah Palin, I figured I would probably not find a kindred spirit in her, and I didn't. She wrote about the Bible and God but not to such a degree that I would throw the book across the room.

I thought the anecdotes were interesting and well-written. Some have stayed in my mind: the boys' pushing their boundaries and finding the cave, the boys' mountain biking at Devil's Pass when they were teens and Kaylene's not being able to be in touch with them for hours, and the trip Kaylene took with female friends and without the boys on Kesugi Ridge.

I think I'd recommend this to Christians who were interested in reading about families, hiking, and the (cold) outdoors. ( )

More a series of personal essays than a memoir, this is an interesting reflection on raising young boys with the freedom to explore the wilderness and their dreams, in Alaska. ( )

Kaylene Johnson's nonfiction account of raising her two sons in Alaska centers around a series of essays. Her writing style is quite readable but I was often left wanting to know more about an episode, only to find myself in the next essay and a different time in their lives.
Johnson's early years and experiences with her sons easily hooked me in. I was fascinated by this woman who was raising her children in an environment completely foreign to me and fraught with danger and possibilities. however, as her sons aged, I was turned off by their obvious disregard for parental rules and limitations and Johnson's apparent acceptance of those behaviors. After several such examples, I began to no longer be as concerned about her sons' well-being or her responses to their escapades.
Perhaps it takes a woman with the ability to let her children experience life on their own terms to live successfully in such a wild country. Since I am not that type of woman, I could not identify with Johnson's life as much as I had hoped. ( )

A Tender Distance brings us into the lives of Kaylene Johnson and her 2 adventurous boys as they grow and venture out into the wilderness of Alaska. In Alaska, Kaylenes role as parent in helping her fearless children move forth into the world takes on a balancing act that has been described as walking a tightrope.

This was not a fast book to read, but a good one. It was a combination of beautifully crafted descriptions of the scenery, philosophy of parenting, and adventure that made me suck in my breath. I put the book down in the beginning to process the pictures in my mind, later I read it more for enjoyment. I wished for photos, but later thought maybe my mind pictures were good enough. I could put myself in her shoes as she worried about the problems the boys could be getting into, and the boys as they strayed further afield. All in all an enjoyable read. ( )

Journalist Kaylene Johnson turns her eye for detail to her own life in this memoir about her motherhood in Alaska. Some essays are serious, some humorous, all written with generous descriptions of the landscape in which she and her husband settled early in their life together.

As her two sons grow from babyhood to adulthood, Johnson asks herself the question that almost all parents ask, "How do we give them freedom to grow, yet also keep them safe?" Yet by raising her sons in a rugged terrain, Johnson has raised the stakes in keeping their sons safe. She recounts teaching her sons to carry bear spray while hiking, to pack food away from their campsites to avoid bear attacks, to handle guns safely, and to avoid coming between a mother moose and her calf.

Reading any memoir by parents about their children, one wonders what the children think of being subjected to such scrutiny. But Johnson deftly navigates the ground where other parent memoirists have falled: she writes about her children while preserving their privacy. Because of that, A Tender Distance reads like a love story to motherhood and Alaska. Recommended. ( )

A story written with humor and grace, of a mother raising her two sons in the Alaskan wilderness. The author describes trying to strike a balance between allowing her two boys to grow and explore their Alaskan environment, yet all the while trying to keep them safe. This book speaks of the struggles that all mothers experience. The letting go - allowing your child the freedom to learn, experience and ultimately mature, yet desiring beyond all else that the child be safe on this perilous journey called life. Whether it be encountering the wilds of Alaska, the complexities of urban life, navigating the rocky roads of relationships, or experiencing the certain disappointments life throws in our path, the author strikes a chord that ultimately speaks to us all.

I had a special interest in this book because I also raised my son for many years in Alaska. I found the descriptions of setting accurate and enjoyed revisiting my old home through the stories. I also related to the author's concern about mothering a boy and delicate balance between wanting to hold on and needing to let go. I didn't relate to the some of the family values but overall I found it an interesting book to read and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys books that can transport them into a new setting. ( )

Early in their marriage, Kaylene Johnson and her husband moved to Eagle River, Alaska a suburb of Anchorage. But Eagle River isn’t your normal sprawling suburb familiar to those of us who live in the lower 48. From their home, it was a short distance to the natural beauty and challenges that Alaska provides. As her boys grew up, Kaylene was beset with the normal fears a mother has as she struggles to let her boys grow and begin to enjoy the independence that they will need. She began early, taking them for long hikes in the mountains berry picking, all the time keeping an eye out for bears who also enjoy that particular activity. As she set boundaries, the boys pushed the limits of those boundaries in following their curiosity—finding a cave high up in the rock face of a mountain, careening down the hills on their mountain bikes, training to run the Mountain Marathon. And all the time, Kaylene was in wonder at the growth of her small babies into young men and in the beauty that surrounded their lives. A lovely tribute to mothers, sons and the beauty of nature. ( )

she adores her son. they cannot do wrong. For sure a memoir and not a story since she is very subjective what she tells and what not. However, nice to read with rose-colored glasses hwo to rise kids. for sure not reality, but sweet to read. ( )

This book was equal parts a parenting memior and a look at the wilds of Alaska. The central themes of the book related to letting go, control, danger and nature. Certainly, Kaylene has to deal with some parenting choices many parents never have to cope with (bring a gun on the hike or not....how to handle aggresive anglers) but at the heart of it all -- many of the issues relate to the common challenge of protecting our children from danger, while trying to give them rich opportunities. Kaylene is often poetic and relates much of her parenting observations back to nature. If you are looking for a "How to parent in Alaska", this might not be the best choice -- but if you are looking to wonder what Alaska might be like to parent in, what challenges the environment presents -- this might be a great read for you. ( )

A mother's memoir of raising her sons in Alaska. Seizing her husband's job transfer as an opportunity to raise her sons in a natural environment, Johnson pursues her own dream of living a simpler life.
She must constantly balance her encouragement of their freedom to explore and enjoy outdoor life against her protective instincts as a mother.
Finally gaining the ability to maintain "a tender distance" as they grow up and away, Johnson grows into a new life phase, herself.
An enjoyable book, full of the conflicting emotions of motherhood and the rugged beauty of Alaska and its wildlife.

I had not expected this book to be a series of essays, so I read the first few chapters waiting for a "story." But it soon became clear that in some ways Johnson's story is every mother's story: "Alarm. It was becoming a familiar sensation growing in proportion to the boys' independence." It is hard to let go of your children's hands when crossing streets on the scale of Alaska's wildness. I wish I had liked the men in her life more - sexism, particularly when justified by religious beliefs, is a huge red flag. Overall, I enjoyed many of the vignettes of Alaskan life, but this isn't a book I'd re-read. ( )

This is hawked as a loving memoir of motherhood on America’s last frontier, but emerges as a maudlin collection of essays penned by a martyr who relies on clichés. From her first-chapter anguish of being excluded from her college-bound son’s scrapbook to simmering anger at her oft-absent husband, Kaylene Johnson overlooks no insult or opportunity to whine, and her tendency to haul out God at every turn grows tiresome, especially when the reader hasn’t been warned of religious content. Johnson bears striking emotional resemblance to Sarah Palin, about whom she penned an admiring biography, and this shallowness erodes the collection of any significant meaning or value. ( )

A very intense book about a mother's relationship with her sons.

The author mourns a future which will bring divergent paths to her children. And so she immerses herself in the present and fully absorbs every moment. Written very carefully, every paragraph is a poem. ( )

Like a brilliant fall day, Kaylene Johnson's A Tender Distance has a gorgeous ache of melancholy coursing through its pages. This lyrical book about raising children, set against the vast uncompromising landscape of a primeval country, shows us well that with every coming there must be a leaving, that from the moment they're born our children are ebbing from us. A Tender Distance is written with a calm, deep grace. It is a poem of a book, suffused with courage, sadness and beauty.

--Richard Goodman, author of French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France and The Soul of Creative Writing ( )