Jimmy Bluefeather

<p><b>Winner National Outdoor Book Award</b></p>
<p>"Part quest part rebirth Heacox's debut novel spins a story of Alaska's Tlingit people and the land an old man dying and a young man learning to live."<br>-<b><i>Kirkus Reviews</i> (starred review)</b>
</p><p>"A splendid unique gem of a novel."<br>—<b><i>Library Journal</i> (starred review)</b>
</p><p>"Heacox does a superb job of transcending his characters' unique geography to create a heartwarming all-American story."<br>—<b><i>Booklist</i></b>
</p><p>"What makes this story so appealing is the character Old Keb. He is as finely wrought and memorable as any character in contemporary literature and energizes the tale with a humor and warmth that will keep you reading well into the night."<br>—<b>National Outdoor Book Awards</b>
</p><p>Old Keb Wisting is somewhere around ninety-five years old (he lost count awhile ago) and in constant pain and thinks he wants to die. He also thinks he thinks too much. Part Norwegian and part Tlingit Native (with some Filipino and Portuguese thrown in) he’s the last living canoe carver in the village of Jinkaat in Southeast Alaska.</p>
<p>When his grandson James a promising basketball player ruins his leg in a logging accident and tells his grandpa that he has nothing left to live for Old Keb comes alive and finishes his last canoe with help from his grandson. Together (with a few friends and a crazy but likeable dog named Steve) they embark on a great canoe journey. Suddenly all of Old Keb’s senses come into play so clever and wise in how he reads the currents tides and storms. Nobody can find him. He and the others paddle deep into wild Alaska but mostly into the human heart in a story of adventure love and reconciliation. With its rogue’s gallery of colorful endearing small-town characters this book stands as a wonderful blend of Mark Twain’s <i>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</i> and John Nichols’s <i>The Milagro Beanfield War</i> with dashes of John Steinbeck thrown in.</p>