Dancing at the Odinochka

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references.; In the 1860s, Erinia Pavaloff's life at a trading post in Russian America gets more complicated when the region is annexed to the United States and members of the small community become American Alaskans. Author's note identifies the historical basis for the story. Publisher Marketing: Nearly 150 years ago, when Alaska belonged to Russia and was called Russian America, Erinia Pavaloff lived at the Nulato odinochka on the banks of the Yukon River. Owned by the Russian American Company, an odinochka was a trading post where native people traded their furs for precious Russian supplies. Erinia is always busy -- learning to make fur clothing, emptying buckets of snow into water barrels, helping Mamma, gathering spruce boughs to make fish traps, and grinding paint for a new canoe. It seems that Erinia works all the time. So she can hardly wait for visitors -- the company men who bring stock for trading, or the Indians who come to fish or sell furs. When visitors come, Erinia and the others are delighted to listen to old stories and music, and everyone dances at the odinochka. Life has a good sameness that Erinia counts on...until the day when American Western Union Telegraph men arrive. Sent up north to build a telegraph line, the men bring news of the outside world, new inventions, and customs unfamiliar to Erinia's people. Everyone at the odinochka listens to the Americans' stories, learns their funny songs, and dances the waltz that the telegraph men teach them. But as suddenly as they've come, the telegraph men leave -- their telegraph line abandoned -- and Erinia is bereft. Word comes that the United States has purchased Russian America from Russia; Erinia and her people have become American Alaskans. Their lives will never be the same, as they struggle to find their place in this American world that doesn't care about the old ways. Will there ever again be dancing at their odinochka? Inspired by a five-page memoir written in 1936 by the real Erinia Pavaloff, a relative of the author's stepfather, Dancing at the Odinochka is a stunning story of family, culture, and hope that will leave no reader untouched. Review Citations: Ingram Children's Advance 07/01/2005 pg. 47 (EAN 9780689873881, Hardcover) Kirkus Review - Children 06/15/2005 pg. 683 (EAN 9780689873881, Hardcover) Kliatt 07/01/2005 pg. 11 (EAN 9780689873881, Hardcover) Booklist 08/01/2005 pg. 2028 (EAN 9780689873881, Hardcover) School Library Journal 08/01/2005 pg. 128 (EAN 9780689873881, Hardcover) Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 09/01/2005 pg. 18 (EAN 9780689873881, Hardcover) Voice of Youth Advocates 10/01/2005 pg. 303 (EAN 9780689873881, Hardcover) Multicultural Review 05/01/2006 pg. 95 (EAN 9780689873881, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2006 pg. 75 (EAN 9780689873881, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Hill, Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick Hill lives in Fairbanks, Alaska. She was an elementary school teacher for more than thirty years, most of that time in the Alaskan "bush." She has written several books for young readers, including "Toughboy and Sister", "Winter Camp", and the award-winning "The Year of Miss Agnes".