Bespelled by Robert Service's poems about the Yukon, young LaVerne Guyer dreams of running away from the family farm and taking ship to Alaska disguised as a boy. Washington State seems too staid and she doesn't want to be married early like her sister Ivah, who scoffs and promises to make her life miserable if all she wants is hardship. The SONG OF THE YUKON is calling and in 1921 LaVerne sets out in secret.

Calling herself Verne, the youngster takes ship on a freighter to Anchorage as a kitchen boy. She gets advice on homesteading in Fairbanks; eighty acres of free land, provided a cabin is built within two years. Working for months as a girl in a trading post and handling goods, she's able to ride out and prospect for land in the beautiful rugged country. A native man called Black-Eyed Joe agrees to be her guide upriver - there are no maps. She meets a woman called Charlie who lives alone in a cabin.

The tale struck me as idealised - other stories I've read show the prospectors taking pot shots at dolphins and whales, reeling around drunk, assuming that women were good- time girls and having to carry the immense weight of goods that winter survival required. We are shown 'fifteen beautiful sled dogs' which would have looked very much like lean wolves. It's hard to credit that LaVerne has kept her innocence about both men and grizzly bears. Finding flakes of yellow rock in a stream, she wonders what kind of mineral would be this colour, and decides to bring them back to the trading post... anyone who had lived in Alaska for a week would instantly wonder whether it was gold or fool's-gold.

This short novel is a fine adventure in rugged country and young adults may well enjoy the read, laced through with poetry and friendship. Trisha Sugarek has written several other works including gay fiction and brings her settings vividly to life. Try SONG OF THE YUKON for a slice of life less ordinary.

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