Bo at Ballard Creek is a sentimental story about a young girl named Bo, her father’s, and their life in a mining camp in Alaska. The story details the life of a miner in Alaska in the 1920s, it’s hardships, but more importantly the community of the village, their connections with each other and their roles in the camp. Bo learns about mining, cooking, sewing, and survival while building relationships with other villagers. The book is straightforward and easy to read and is written in short episodic chapters that leaves the reader feeling like each chapter is a short story, a glimpse of an important memory for Bo. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think it would be an excellent steppingstone into Alaskan history, culture and people for young readers.
Alaska connections: Village life, Alaskan history and the goldrush, the science and history of flight and it’s impact on Alaskan life, cultural values about family.
Activity: Learn about the goldrush, how it changed Alaska, and the process of mining gold. Discuss the importance of family and community with an emphasis on the meaning of family, how families can be different, and all families are valid. Learn about and practice some of the ways of life in the mining days such as baking, sewing and survival skills. Take the students outdoors to try their hand at mining. ( )

I'm a sucker for frontier stories, and I like it even better when they really teach me something about a time or a place. These books are so upbeat and curiously cheerful that I just adored them. I love the pragmatic responses of the papas to Bo's upbringing -- the rules are so very firm, but never applied with anger. I love the partnership tradition, which strikes me as a uniquely gold-rush sort of thing, where there were so many men living out on their own over such a long time -- handy, too, that it leaves an ambiguous role modeling for today's same sex partnerships. Mostly, I just love the storytelling, the history, the quirky and fascinating characters. ( )

Bo is a little girl living at a gold mine in 1920s Alaska. This book is just a series of slice-of-life bits in life at the mine. It is sweet and quaint and so very interesting. Bo is a darling little girl and seeing mine life from her point of view is fresh. ( )

Fun, lighthearted story. There are hard things in it, but they are talked about from a child's point of view. Heartwarming, shows love between native and white people.

Grades 3-5 ( )