Bo At Ballard Creek

Bo At Ballard Creek by Kirkpatrick Hill, 279 pages

This is a sweet little story about a girl named Bo who lives with her two papas in Ballard Hill in Alaska. Bo’s mother was a good-time girl who left Bo with Arvid. Jack saw them together and the two men decided that she couldn’t go to the orphanage and decided to raise her themselves. They were on their way to Ballard Creek to be the blacksmith and cook for the gold mining operation and everyone there loved her, including the mining boys and the Eskimos who lived there. The story reminded a little of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books in tone. The book might appeal a little more to girls because of the main character being a girl, but Bo has many friends who are boys and she’s not really interested in much that would be considered traditional for girls. Also, there is just a little of the “how-to” information in here that can appeal to boys so some boys may also like it. Overall, this is a solid, fun, little story.