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From Kirkus Reviews

Josh, 15, lives with his father and older half-brother, Nathan, in a cabin in the wilderness 100 miles from Anchorage, Alaska. Living there was Nathan's idea; he is full of high-minded ideas about nature that are rigorous but not always realistic. Josh, a pretty good woodsman, would rather live in a place where he could enjoy friends, girls, video games, and hockey, but when he kills a bear that is charging them, Nathan reacts with fury. Josh and his fatherwho, to Josh's chagrin, would follow Nathan anywherelearn that Nathan identifies closely with the bears; he decides that he can't live with them because they are meat- eaters, and moves into an elderly neighbor's empty cabin. When the neighbor's relatives (including a pretty 14-year-old girl) come to spend a weekend at the cabin, Josh hopes the conflicts of interest will precipitate his move back to town. In the end, it is Nathan's risky involvement with the bears that forces the issue. Vanasse (A Distant Enemy, 1997) pulls readers into the story from the outset, and her sensitively drawn characters display a realistic mix of love and loyalty. The complex interplay of feelings in this troubled family, set against the pristine beauty of backwoods Alaska, imbues an already compelling read with a refreshing combination of action and psychological depth. (Fiction. 10-14) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-An authentic picture of modern Alaskan life through the eyes of a teenage protagonist. Fifteen-year-old Josh finds himself living the life of a trapper with his father, the veteran of two failed marriages in the Lower 48, and his older half-brother, Nathan, who holds idealized views of nature. As his father attempts to create an all-male wilderness family with his two sons, who have grown up separately, and as Nathan slips closer and closer to danger with his obsession for living at one with wild bears, Josh longs to attend high school with other kids and play on the hockey team. He is torn between his loyalty to his father and his resentment of Nathan's increasingly aloof and extreme behavior. Vanasse depicts well the rigors of living through a northern winter just below the Alaska range and Josh's coming to terms with his difficult family situation, in part through his friendship with Shannon, a 14-year-old girl who is also new to Alaska, and in part through the growing maturity that his forced isolation grants him. In the end, he finds courage as well as a respect for the grandeur of his surroundings that put him in a middle ground between his father's utilitarian view of the wilderness and Nathan's ultimately destructive view of bears as his true brothers. A coming-of-age novel with moments of true adventure, this title will find an audience in libraries well beyond Alaska.

Sue Sherif, Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library, AK

From Publishers Weekly

Civilization might look pretty good to readers after they share Josh's experience living in the Alaskan wilderness inside a 10 x 20 cabin with his father and older half-brother, Nathan. Josh, who would be a freshman in high school, longs for the old days when he played on a hockey team and was surrounded by friends. Josh's father, however, is content to stay in the wilderness making up lost time with his older son. Meanwhile, Nathan, an avid nature enthusiast, strives to become self-sufficient by living without "all things manmade." The risks he takes outdoors on his own nearly cost him his life. In this chilling winter's tale, Vanasse (A Distant Enemy) covers the three classic conflicts: man against nature, man against man and man against himself; but events overshadow the characterizations, leaving her message muddied and no resolution for Josh and his family. Those who find Nathan's extremism as annoying as his father's insensitivity to his younger son's needs may still appreciate the beauty and danger of the landscape. Yet the irony, that Nathan feels a "kinship" with the very bear who nearly destroy him, is diluted here. For all of Nathan's obsession with his surroundings and Josh's remark that "the wilderness would be with him always," young nature lovers are rarely allowed to experience the scenic grandeur for themselves, and must rely instead on dialogue to report what so captivates the brothers. Ages 10-14.