Three dissimilar narrators share a passion to protect what they most love, including their home on a remote coast of Alaska threatened by climate change and development, in On Heaven's Hill by Kim Heacox (John Muir and the Ice That Started a Fire; Jimmy Bluefeather), a fast-paced novel of resistance.
Their stories unfold in alternating chapters, intertwining as they face their common conflict. Salt d'Alene struggles to support his family in the town of Strawberry Flats. Nearby, Willynillyville--the "commune... paradise, holdout, and fort" of veterans of four wars--welcomes narrator Kestrel Nash, age 11, and her family, everyone hoping Alaska's peace will help heal the PTSD her Papa suffers after serving in Afghanistan. "Family is everything," the third narrator thinks. Silver, a young wolf, hunts to feed his pack. Meanwhile, the governor plans a "Roads to Resources" project--roads, a bridge and methane drilling--that threatens their home. Confirming the presence of an endangered species, including wolves, would "paralyze the governor's program."
Multiple subplots increase the tension. Secretly, Salt grapples with an offer of generous compensation to illegally trap wolves. Idealistic Kestrel leads an Arthurian might-for-right protest movement, defying her pro-development principal. Silver's pack flees "tall uprights" with drones and helicopters "shredding the sky." Protestors refer to Edward Abbey and Henry David Thoreau; both factions repeatedly quote the Bible. Amid the turmoil, love among family and friends prevails, balancing the threat of environmental disaster with the grace of kindness. A veteran cites Nelson Mandela: "It always seems impossible... until it's done." Kestrel, prophetically, thinks: "Save the wolves and we just might save ourselves." --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.