Hello and welcome to ‘Map Monday’. This was inspired by the current pandemic and lockdowns and the inability to travel. I will share one book each week with you that is set somewhere different to where I live. I’ll chat a bit about the book and throw some interesting facts out there about the place. I hope you enjoy travelling through books with me…
This week I’ve picked ‘The Great Alone’ by Kristin Hannah – which is set in Alaska!
Book Synopsis:
A woman has to be tough as steel up here. You can’t count on anyone to save you and your children. You have to be willing to save yourselves.
Thirteen-year-old Leni is coming of age in a tumultuous time. Caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, she dares to hope that Alaska will lead to a better future for her family, and a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown.
As Leni grows up in the shadow of her parents’ increasingly volatile marriage, she meets Matthew. And Matthew – thoughtful, kind, brave – makes her believe in the possibility of a better life . . .
With her trademark combination of elegant prose and deeply drawn characters, Kristin Hannah celebrates the remarkable and enduring strength of women.
Interesting Facts about Alaska:
- Alaska has a massive amount of lakes- 3 million to be exact. Lake Iliamna is the largest which is the eighth-largest lake by area in the US.
- The name Alaska comes from the Aleut word Alyeska, meaning The Great Land.
- Alaska has an estimated 100,000 glaciers
- Benny Benson designed Alaska’s flag in 1926 at age 13. It would become the official state flag upon Alaska’s adoption into the Union in 1959.
- If Manhattan, New York, had the same population density as Alaska only 16 people would live there!
- Alaska has 54,563 kilometres of tidal shoreline
- Zinc is the state’s biggest mineral export but gold might be what Alaska is most known for.
- There are approximately 1 bear to every 21 people.
- About 52% of Alaskans are men
- There are 224 federally recognized tribes and 20 indigenous languages spoken in the state.
- At their closest points, Alaska is approximately 50 miles from Russia. If you could drive across the ocean you could be there in under an hour!
- Alaska contains more than 100 volcanoes and volcanic fields which have been active within the last two million years
- The lowest temperature recorded in Alaska was -80 degrees at Prospect Creek Camp in 1971.
- Outsiders first discovered Alaska in 1741 when Danish explorer Vitus Jonassen Bering sighted it on a voyage from Siberia
- Alaska is the only state name that you can type on one row of a keyboard
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