Balto and the Great Race

Balto and the Great Race is a middle-grade historical nonfiction novel written by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel and illustrated by Nora Köerber. It was originally published in 1999 after an animated film was released in 1995. The novel centers around the Serum Crisis in Nome, Alaska, in 1925 and how a team of sled dogs, led by Balto the Siberian husky, saved the lives of many affected by transporting serum a great distance through dangerous terrain and weather. It is a story of perseverance, the bond between humans and animals, and the qualities that make a great leader. Balto and the Great Race won the Kansas City Children’s Book Award for Grades 1-3 in 1999.

This guide utilizes the 2014 Random House Children’s Books edition.

Plot Summary

Balto and the Great Race begins with an homage to the statue of Balto in Central Park, New York City. A description and illustration indicate the courage and goodness of heart that Balto the Siberian Husky possessed. He was a sled dog who lived in Nome, Alaska in the 1920s. He was owned and trained by a man named Leonhard Seppala, who was an expert musher and dog race trainer who specialized in Siberian huskies. Siberian huskies have a history of working alongside humans that spans over 2,000 years, and their loyalty and dedication to humans is reflective of this eternal bond. The Gold Rush brought many people to Alaska, and the towns and cities they developed during the 1800s remained inhabited by those devoted to the land and culture. Seppala’s good friend, Gunnar Kaasen, was also a musher, and often used to take Balto, a particularly strong dog, along with his team.

In 1925, winter hit Alaska with an unusual strength, bringing blizzards, fierce winds, and large amounts of snow. At the same time, a diphtheria epidemic struck the city of Nome, causing over 100 inhabitants to fall ill with the disease and five to die. Many of these victims were children and Inuit people. Dr. Curtis Welch, the only doctor working in Nome at the time, was tasked with caring for the patients. When he ran out of serum, he sent an urgent telegram across the state pleading with surrounding towns and cities to send any supply they may have. When serum was found in Anchorage, it was quickly transported north by train to Nenana, the final stop on the train tracks. Nome and the rest of the towns along the route between it and Nenana were west toward the Bering Sea and along the northern edge of Norton Sound. Dog mushers across Alaska, many of whom either worked for the Northern Commercial mail system or one of various gold mining companies, volunteered to create a relay system to transport the serum in record time to Nome—an event that would come to be known as the Serum Run of 1925. In Nome, both Seppala and Kaasen volunteered to help. Seppala took what he considered his best team, with his most loyal husky Togo in the lead, and Kaasen decided to enlist Balto, whose strength and endurance Kaasen believed in. Kaasen readied his team to head for Bluff, a nearby town where he was to stay and wait for the serum. He took another dog as lead, putting Balto in back, not yet aware of what Balto was truly capable of.

Kaasen and his team arrived in Bluff and received word that the serum was already on the sled of the fourth musher (which would eventually become 20 mushers). It was coming across the Yukon River, a dangerously open territory where dogs and mushers must be weary of shifting and breaking ice, winds, predators, and snow blindness. Seppala and his team were on their way to collect the serum at the edge of the Yukon River. Seppala made a risky choice to take the shorter path across Norton Sound, chancing the possibility of his team falling through the ice. Another musher passed the serum to Seppala, who then turned for the town of Golovin. Along the way, his dog team was plunged into the freezing waters when the ice broke below them. Seppala had to pull each dog out and attend to their paws before carrying on. Soon, they arrived in Golovin and passed the serum to another musher, Charlie Olson. Meanwhile in Nome, Dr. Welch received help from the Red Cross and a veteran nurse named Morgan. Together, they prepared for the serum’s arrival so it could be administered in a timely manner. In Bluff, Kaasen readied his dog team for the serum, but Balto sensed a storm coming. Telegraph lines start to fail, and when the serum arrived in Bluff, Kaasen was told to head to Solomon first to receive any messages. Along the way, the storm worsened, and the night grew dark. Kaasen’s lead dog became lost and refused to proceed, but Kaasen noticed that Balto was eager to lead. He trusted Balto, who confidently guided the team in the direction of Nome and straight past Solomon; the town’s lights were covered by the blizzard. Similarly, the musher awaiting Kaasen’s team in Port Safety was asleep with his lights out. When Kaasen saw this, and observed Balto’s determination, he decided to entrust Balto to lead his team the remainder of the way back to Nome.

At one point along the way, the sled was lifted into the air by wind and the serum crate was tossed away. Kaasen blindly felt for it in the dark blizzard and found it. By dawn, they triumphantly arrived in the city with the serum safely in tow. The serum was administered right away, and the sick patients began to heal. The epidemic was over, and the people of Nome were safe. Balto and Kaasen traveled the country for two years, as everyone was eager to see the dog who saved the children of Nome. A statue was erected of Balto in Central Park, New York, and Balto and Kaasen attended its unveiling; Balto was also given a medal. Seppala, Balto’s original owner and trainer, was proud of the husky, but also regretful that his own lead dog, Togo, never received the same recognition. Balto and the rest of the dog team were eventually sold to a museum in Los Angeles, and there they quickly fell ill and gravely thin. A man named George Kimble found them there and called upon the help of the children of Cleveland, Ohio to raise the money to move the dogs there. The children, grateful for the help that the dogs offered other children during the Serum Run, were eager to empty their piggy banks. They raised the money to buy the dogs and they were moved to a happier, healthier home. Balto lived 14 years and was immortalized with a stuffed mount that can still be seen in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History today. The Iditarod Race is held in Alaska every year and sees countless teams of dogs traversing the paths that were traversed in 1925. One of the Serum Run’s original mushers, Edgar Nollner, would greet the passing mushers as they rode through his town of Galena until his passing in 1999.