I Survived the Great Alaska Earthquake, 1964

Four days later, Jackson is in Uncle Solly’s guestroom in Valdez. He has a nightmare about the winter bear and wakes up in a panic. He remembers the family’s long trek through the woods and how he doesn’t have any schoolwork because the cabin fire destroyed all of his supplies. Jackson falls back asleep.

When he wakes up, he is happy to find his parents enjoying their breakfast with Uncle Solly. Solly has hired them to help him with his work as a carpenter. Jackson recalls how his parents needed Uncle Solly’s help in their first year in the Alaskan wilderness when he was their neighbor in the bush. Solly taught them essential survival skills like hunting and fishing. Jackson wants to help Solly and his parents with their house construction jobs, but his mom and dad insist he must go to the local elementary school while they are in Valdez. Jackson is annoyed since he hates the thought of school, which he has never attended before, but he tries not to complain.

On Jackson’s first day of school, he is surprised that his teacher is a young, friendly woman named Miss Lawrence. The other children welcome Jackson, and the teacher begins her geography lessons, teaching the children about the regions of Alaska and the state’s many Indigenous peoples.