Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod
Gary Paulsen. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), $26 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-15-126227-4
The scene was unnerving to a novice: television cameras, loudspeakers, crowds and nearly 2000 excited dogs all jammed a street in downtown Anchorage. It was the start of the Iditarod dogsled race from Anchorage to Nome over 1180 miles of rugged terrain. Paulsen ( Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass ) had run dogs in Minnesota, but was woefully unprepared in 1983 for his first Iditarod and for conditions in Alaska. After getting lost with his 15-dog team in Anchorage at the start, he and the dogs later took a wrong turn again, adding 120 miles to the journey. Attacked by a moose, suffering frostbite and sleeplessness, he nevertheless completed the race in 17 days and was eager to run another. Paulsen presents a fine depiction of the landscape and of dogs at work in this gripping story of adventure and endurance. Photos. First serial to Readers Digest; author tour. (Mar.)
Details
Reviewed on: 02/28/1994
Genre: Nonfiction
Compact Disc - 978-1-61803-435-9
DVD-Video - 978-0-7888-3615-2
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MP3 CD - 978-1-5159-4487-4
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Video, VHS Format - 978-0-7888-3648-0