Gary Paulsen

The narrator tells of a winter run with a team of dogs. Lush illustrations depict the animals’ anticipation and pleasure on the snow-filled night.

When a deadly plague reaches the small fish camp where he lives, an orphan named Leif is forced to take to the water in a cedar canoe. He flees northward, following a wild, fjord-riven shore, navigating from one danger to the next, unsure of his destination. Yet the deeper into his journey he paddles, the closer he comes to his truest self as he connects to “the heartbeat of the ocean … the pulse of the sea.”