Another one? You might think I am going a little crazy with Paulsen's books...well he is a really good young adult author and I just can't get enough!
This was a very intriguing book. It is a Newberry Honor book for 2000.
It is a book about an Eskimo. Not the fake Eskimos you watched on cartoons as a kid but a real Eskimo from the old days. It is about traditions, and about a boy becoming a man. This book was completely unpredictable. It helped me appreciate the coldness of Alaska and the brave people that live there in extreme conditions yet are so happy to be blessed by the land, the ice the animals and the wind and sea.
There was an old Eskimo shaman Oogruk and he helps a boy Russel Suskitt take a dog team and sled to escape the modern way of his village and return to the old ways. It is a book of self-discovery and adventure. There is poetry in this book and a song, the boy becomes the song.
I like winter/snow camping but that is nothing compared to what the boy in the story does. 40 below most of the time and yet it is a way of life.
This is a HEALING book.
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