Eleven-year-old Rigel Harman loves her life in off-the-grid Alaska. She hunts rabbits, takes correspondence classes through the mail, and plays dominoes with her family in their two-room cabin. She doesn’t mind not having electricity or running water—instead, she’s got tall trees, fresh streams, and endless sky.
But then her parents divorce, and Rigel and her sisters have to move with their mom to the Connecticut suburbs to live with a grandmother they’ve never met. Rigel hates it in Connecticut. It’s noisy, and crowded, and there’s no real nature. Her only hope is a secret pact that she made with her father: If she can stick it out in Connecticut for one year, he’ll bring her back home.
At first, surviving the year feels impossible. Middle school is nothing like the wilderness, and she doesn’t connect with anyone . . . until she befriends a crow living behind her school. And if this wild creature has made a life for itself in the suburbs, then, just maybe, Rigel can too.
365 Days to Alaska is a wise and funny debut novel about finding beauty, hope, and connection in the world no matter where you are—even Connecticut.
Customer Reviews (4.7 / 5 · 20 reviews)
Isabella★★★★★
The way Rigel’s world is built—from the correspondence classes to those quiet dominoes games in the cabin—pulled me right in from the first chapter. I bought it for my daughter’s school reading list but ended up finishing it myself in two days. Such a tender story about family and change.
George★★★★★
Got this for my niece who’s obsessed with survival stories, and she finished it in two days. The correspondence-school detail and the rabbit-hunting scenes really pull you into Rigel’s world. It’s a sweet, quiet read that doesn’t talk down to kids.
Eva N.★★★★★
The way Rigel’s world shrinks to those two-room cabin details—hunting rabbits, mail-in lessons—pulled me straight into her quiet, fierce routine, and I finished it in one sitting. The loneliness and love on every page felt real enough to touch, and my kid grabbed it right after me.