Part of a series of home literacy readers with conversational text and sketches, this booklet addresses water safety in the Alaskan summer environment. Alaskan villages are generally located near slough, creek, lake or ocean. At the end of winter, the ice floes go out, and where there was snow there is water. Summer activities include use of boats, gill nets, dip nets, fish wheels, fish knives, racks, smoke houses, etc. Most families have a small motor boat used for travel, hunting, recreation, and fishing. Children learn safe boating by example. Although the Arctic night is light, the fish are running, and Alaskans could stay busy all night, good safety procedures require a good night's sleep prior to boating. Boaters must be alert enough to face sandbars, logs, eddies, sweepers, and water so cold that in early summer a person can stay alive in this water only 15 to 20 minutes. Even swimmers with lifejackets can become over-chilled and die of hypothermia. Storms should be waited out and boats tied securely. Boats should have the correct motor size and low, even loads, including both packs and/or people. Boaters should always carry sufficient tools, fire extinguishers, lines, paddles, anchors, bailers, flashlights, first aid kits, and personal flotation devices for each passenger. Fingers and hair should be kept out of the kickers by engine cowling (non-heating covers). Boaters should recognize that fuel explosions and drug abuse while boating can be fatal. (SC)