Book excerpt: This colorful, fact-filled tour of all the things that make Alaska so amazing -- no wonder they call it the Great Land! Cornelius Randolph Raven (C. R. for short) is an opinionated but highly informed host of this expedition across Alaska. Join him as he introduces and explains all of the things that make Alaska such a remarkable place. Here are big fat and hungry mosquitoes, five different kinds of whales all with flukes and spouts, lush wet rain forests, glaciers that go for miles and leave huge U-shaped valleys, exploding mountains, (aka volcanoes) chilly permafrost, giant vegetables that bask in 20 hours of sunlight per day during the summer, and black gold (oil) that flows through an 800-mile pipe the length of the state. K. E. Lewis's lively illustrations make this book as irresistible and fascinating as the Great Land itself.