The picture book describes the web of life on a typical river along the southern Alaska coast. It follows a year in the life of the river, the sights and sounds as the river freezes shut and the spring melt comes. One by one, the snowflakes begin to melt. Drip, trickle, gurgle, swish.
Silent ice turns to water, sending the river with a hundred voices to the sea.
Miller's descriptive writing and Jon Van Zyle's oil illustrations provide memorable word and visual pictures, of ravens cawing over summer salmon scraps and of the rich and fishy-smelling soil along the river. A kingfisher carts off salmon in his oversized beak and a thirsty moose sips from the river. Miller gives a full picture of the river's importance as food source and home for a variety of critters down to the humblest of plankton. Miller, a former teacher who lives in Fairbanks, has made a career of writing children's nature books. Miller packs facts about her subjects into readable text.