Seventeen-year-old Johnny Least-Weasel knows that his grandfather Albert
is a stubborn old man and won't stop checking his own traplines even
though other men his age stopped doing so years ago. But Albert
Least-Weasel has been running traplines in the Alaskan wilderness alone
for the past sixty years. Nothing has ever gone wrong on the trail he
knows so well. When Albert doesn't come back from checking his traps,
with the temperature steadily plummeting, Johnny must decide quickly
whether to trust his grandfather or his own instincts. Written in
alternating chapters that relate the parallel stories of Johnny and his
grandfather, this novel poignantly addresses the hardships of life in
the far north, suggesting that the most dangerous traps need not be made
of steel.