The Five Skies of Idaho

Confess. What do you think of when I say “Idaho?” Potatoes, right? Well, believe me when I say that, after reading Five Skies (the 2009 Reading Across Rhode Island selection) I know Idaho is a lot more than potatoes! And the author of Five Skies, Ron Carlson, is at his best when presenting what can only be described as the book’s fourth main character – the rugged mountains and canyon gorges of Idaho.

The New York Times describes it this way, “Most impressive, though, is Carlson's evocation of the Western landscape, especially its immensely variable sky. Every few pages there's a new image of this panorama, which shifts from ''a luminescent charcoal ceiling scalloped with glowing seams'' to an ''amorphous glaring canopy'' to an ''ebony quadrant of the sky'' where the ''ghosted flashes of an electrical storm'' are ''blooming like small stars.''

If you are looking for a way to travel to Idaho (without actually spending money on airfare) check out the following sites – and then tell me what you think about when someone says “Idaho?”

1. One of the most beautiful sites about Idaho is called simply Scenic Byways. Choose and click on a locale; then click on View slideshow, sit back and enjoy.
http://www.idahobyways.gov/byways/

2. Idaho – Adventures in Living also has some wonderful photos. Scroll about two-thirds of the way down and find the Snake River Canyon Area.
http://www.visitidaho.org/mapsimages/photo-search-results.aspx?keyword=Twin%20Falls#content

3. And finally, one of the Reading Across Rhode Island Committee members “just happened” to be visiting her brother in Idaho and brought back the following collection of photographs by Dave Cabitto of Meridian, Idaho.