Black Star, Bright Dawn
by
Scott O'Dell
by
Scott O'Dell
This story is about a girl named Bright Dawn and what happens when she enters the Iditarod, a dogsled race in Alaska. Bright Dawn enters the Iditarod in Ikuma where she moved from Womengo because her father, Bartok, was stranded on a piece of ice and drifting away from the eewoonuks. When Bartok was rescued, he was terrified of the sea so they had to move away from it. Once Bright Dawn is on the trail she sees a moose. When she passes the moose, she comes to two more, a cow moose and a bull moose. The cow moose moved, but the bull moose stayed put until Bright Dawn and her team tried to pass him. The bull moose chased after Bright Dawn and her team. One of Bright Dawn's dogs, Sky, got injured by the bull's two back hooves. He gave Sky three broken ribs so she was taken back to Anchorage by plane. One of her other dogs got a cut in his foot from all the ice on the trail so Bright Dawn put a bandage around it. She had a friend in the Iditarod and his name was Oteg. Oteg helped Bright Dawn in many ways. For example, he gave her very good advice about the race. Later on in the book six of Bright Dawn's dogs got loose and got away and were never found. Her lead dog, Black Star, also got loose, but he came back. Oteg told Bright Dawn King Raven's story. Oteg said that the wolf that Bright Dawn and her team saw was King Raven in disguise. Bright Dawn also got stuck on a piece of ice and started to float away for three days! She was found by the mail plane and its pilot. The pilot helped by dropping a box of food that had a note reading "Help is on the way." Her dad came and got her, and she got back on the trail. When Bright Dawn got to the end of the race, she found out that she came in last place. However, because of her good sportsmanship she got a reward of $2,500. Then she decided to go home to pack up for college in Anchorage with the approval of her parents.
