The Reading Warehouse

A Tender Distance presents fifteen finely-crafted vignettes that explore the perils and joys of raising two fearless boys from toddlerhood to young men.

A Tender Distance is a memoir about motherhood and raising children in Alaska, where a vast wilderness shaped the people they would someday become. When Kaylene Johnson and her family moved to the Last Frontier, she was thrilled with the spectacular setting of their new life. But she was also unsettled by the risks she never before had to consider. Moose regularly frequented the school bus stop and bears seasonally sauntered through their yard. Her story begins with the leave-taking of her oldest son, as she considers this new season in all of their lives and reflects on family, faith, and what it means to be a mother. Written with wit, wisdom, and a grateful heart, this is a mother's story about raising her two boys in Alaska where wilderness is just out the back door of their home.