ROMANCE

My One Square Inch of Alaska

Plume: Penguin Group (USA). Feb. 2013. 336p. ISBN 9780452298767. pap. $16. F
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In the span of just two months, Donna Lane's life is flipped over. It's early September 1953, and she's a high school senior in a small Ohio town struggling to hold her family together. Her father is still reeling from the loss of her mother years earlier, and her younger brother, Will, has odd fainting spells. But they carry on, Donna dreaming of being a fashion designer while Will is determined to get a deed to one inch of Alaska territory through a radio promotion. Starting with the rescue of a mistreated husky, the siblings are changed by encounters with a new art teacher and a healer named MayJune. Then a diagnosis of leukemia propels them to pursue Will's piece of Alaska and to uncover their mother's story.
VERDICT A cast of colorful but believable characters bring freshness and vitality to this bittersweet coming-of-age story. Book clubs and readers of all ages, from teens to their grandmothers, will identify with the protagonists' quest to be true to themselves.
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