Growing down

the long version

Growing Down is a richly told tale of early settlement in Alaska, a re-creation of pioneering life in the 1930's and 1940's, as seen through the eyes of young Annie, a girl growing up in a family of ten children in the Matanuska Valley. Kavasharov vividly describes Annie's life and the landscape of Southcentral Alaska; the labors of homestead life, the sting of discrimination against an Aleut mother and her children, the wonder of a northern sky crowded with stars and dazzling displays of the Aurora Borealis, the excitement of finding the first bluebells of spring after a long, cold winter. Set against the stunning backdrop of Alaska, Growing Down is about the human spirit that perseveres in Annie as she faces loss and hardship.