In her Far North memoir, Growing Up Alaska: Memories of a Town, a Time, a Place, and a People Planted in a Little Pocket of Wonderful, author Niki Breeser Tschirgi describes everything from getting stuck deep in the woods on a snow machine to being charged by a 1,000-pound “mean mama moose” while canoeing with her family on Moon Lake.

Set in the small, isolated Alaskan town of Tok (pronounced “Toke”) during the 1980s, Tschirgi’s memoir also conveys the beauty of the fireweed-festooned landscape and the strong sense of community that grew out of the Tok residents’ dependence on one another. In her straightforward writing style, Tschirgi takes the reader fishing on the Copper River and tubing down Suicide Hill.

Tschirgi refers to her Alaskan home as “a little pocket of something wonderful,” which explains why although she and her family eventually moved out of Alaska, she knows that “if you’ve ever lived in Alaska, you never really say goodbye.”

Growing Up Alaska: Memories of a Town, a Time, a Place, and a People Planted in a Little Pocket of Wonderful by Niki Breeser Tschirgi

Dog Ear Publishing, 2015

156 pages

ISBN: 978-1-4575-3771-4

Available at www.growingupalaska.net and amazon.com.