Customer Reviews

Julie of the Wolves (HarperClassics)

5 star:		(111)
4 star:		(80)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

My 8 year old daughter was given this book to read by her 3rd grade teacher. She was really enjoying the book up until the end of Part II, right before she the main character runs away from her husband (they are 13 years old and it is an arranged marriage) and joins the wolves. I hadn't read the book and was somewhat shocked when she came to me and asked me to read one page to her and explain what was happening. It was the part where her husband Daniel forces himself on her because his friends around town were teasing him that he was "..dumb Daniel. He has a wife and he can't mate her." He proceeds to "press his lips against her mouth", she pulls away and he tears her dress from her shoulder, takes her down to the floor, and "crushes her with his body". Then "the room spun, and grew blurry. Daniel cursed, kicked violently, and lay still." Then he gets up and runs out of the house and yells out "Tomorrow, tomorrow I can, can, can, ha, ha," he bleated piteously. She vomits and then moves into action and leaves him.
Now, I have talked with my daughter about how babies are made, ie. mating, but this was a little different and it brought up a whole other conversation. I know the book is a Newberry Award winner and a very well-written book that most children enjoy, I just wish I had known about this part. The publisher marks the book as ages 10 and up but that is still a young age to have that particular situation explained. And maybe some children would read right past it and not really catch what actually happened but parents might want to know about that so they can be prepared for what to say if their child comes and asks what happened on page 102! I wish I had known about it! Hope this helps if you're deciding whether or not to buy this book for your young daughter.

Julie, an Inuit Eskimo from Alaska, is born with the name Miyax. Because her mother dies when Miyax is barely four years old, Miyax's father, Kapugen, brings her up in the traditional Eskimo ways and teaches her a life of co-existence with the natural world. When Miyax is nine years old, her Aunt takes her away from her father because Julie is suppose to go to school. There she is around Americanized Eskimos, who call her Julie, and she starts to believe that she has lived a strange life with her father in the Alaskan wilderness. At thirteen, Julie finds herself in a bad situation and attempts to run away to San Francisco where her pen pal lives. Even though Julie is running away from her Eskimo upbringing, she winds up depending on the ways of her people. Out in the wilderness, she learns a lot about who she is. This book is about discovery and acceptance as Julie defines herself through her own culture and becomes Miyax again. Jean Craighead George interprets a particular culture, Inuit Eskimo, and defines it throughout the story. Julie, as a young girl, learns the importance of her culture and the process of identifying herself within it. However, Julie, as an adolescent, rebels against her culture because it has become out-of-date and is considered old fashion to live as the traditional Eskimo's once did. Julie learns from the American Eskimo kids about the modern world and about a life that is much different than what she is used to. Julie also has a pen pal who lives in San Francisco who has been sending Julie pictures of her home and telling her about strange and beautiful things that Julie wants to see. She begins to believe that the way she was brought up was, indeed, very strange and therefore not the way that she wants to live anymore. However, on her quest to live in San Francisco, Julie finds herself lost and she has nothing but herself and the wilderness to keep her alive. Drawing on her Inupiat Eskimo upbringing and believing in the Eskimo ways of intelligence, fearlessness, and love, Julie learns to see her people's ways as the way she wants to live. Julie becomes Miyax again, and talks to the wolves, as her father taught her, and gains their trust so that they help her to survive. Julie realizes that she doesn't want to live in San Francisco with all their modern ways and searches to find a traditional Eskimo settlement. Miyax discovers that her father is alive and that he was the man in the helicopter who killed Amaroq, the dominant wolf, for sport. At first when Miyax came across the Eskimo settlement, that her father is living at, she is excited to go back to her heritage. However, she discovers that he is living with a Gussak, an American Eskimo, and that he is no longer living the life of a traditional Eskimo but has become Americanized, and she learns the truth about the man who killed Amaroq. Miyax feels betrayed and leaves her father's home, only to realize that she has no other choice but to live as the people of the Eskimo Settlement do. I believe that Jean Craighead George does a fantastic job of portraying a young girl who is trying to find herself and in doing so, Julie explores her culture and is able to define herself within it. Julie figures out what she really wants and why because of this. In the beginning of the book, Julie is running away from her upbringing and running toward a modern new world. Julie chooses, in the end, to embrace her traditional upbringing and finds peace within herself and an acceptance of herself that she so needs. An acceptance that is so strong that even the thought of living in a village that desecrates many of the thinks Inuit Eskimos believe in, she is still strong enough to know who she is inside and decides to live with her father. Living as an Americanized Eskimo cannot brake down her beliefs or take away her true heritage, which she has gained strength from and a sense of herself.

...By Wang

...Jean ... She got the idea for this book after she saw a girl walking alone in the tundra to visit a faraway friend. Her other inspiration was a regal alpha male wolf in the Denali National Park. ...

The story begins in the freezing artic winter. Miyax, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl, is alone on the tundra-covered North Slope of Alaska. She has spent several days without much nourishment. Now she has turned to a pack of wolves. She is hoping to learn to communicate with them. Then, hopefully, the pack will give her food from their hunt. So far, her attempts have been hopeless. But, if her father, Kapugen had once done it, so could she.

Miyax had been watching the pack for days. She was Eskimo. Eskimos, like other Native Americans, had great respect for nature. Although Miyax sometimes believed the old Eskimo traditions were a little silly, she did love nature. ... The alpha male, or leader of the pack, was Amaroq, the Eskimo word for wolf. His mate was the beautiful Silver. Amaroq's friend was Nails. ...There was also another who didn't stick with the rest of the pack as much: Jello. He was small and quite wiggly.

Reading Julie of the Wolves was like going on an epic adventure through the artic tundra. On a scale of one to ten, I'd give this book an eleven. It's not at all surprising that Jean Craighead George won a Newbery Medal for this book. I liked it when Miyax communicated to the wolves. ... I recommend that anyone who enjoys nature read Julie of the Wolves!

This book was great. It's about a young 13-year-old Eskimo girl, called Miyax, who is married to a boy called Daniel and lives with his parents. Miyax then runs away from Daniel and his family, because of the way she was treated. She plans to work her way to San Francisco, where she would live with her pen pal, but she then finds herself lost in a large tundra and depends on wolves to live. By observing a pack she found how to communicate with the wolves and...
One of my reasons why I liked this book is, it's so descriptive. You can easily picture the characters and their surroundings just by reading a few sentences. Such as this quote, "Her face was pearl-round and her nose was flat. Her black eyes, which slanted gracefully, were moist and sparkling."
Another reason why I like this book is, it gives me an idea of how the environment of Alaska is, and how the old, traditional culture of the Eskimos was like. I also like how the book described the relationship between people, and the nature around them, and how they learned how to survive in the wilderness just by observing animals- how to hunt, where to find food, and how to defend yourself against another predator. This quote describes what I mean, "Next she noted that the grasses grew in different spota than the mosses, and the more she studied, the more the face of the tundra emerged; a face that could tell her which way was north, if she had listened more carefully to Kapugen."
My most favorite part of this book was when Miyax begins playing with the puppies of the pack, Zing, Zit, Sister, and Kapu. This reminds me of how enjoyable life can be with friends and family.

Could you do it? Could you survive in the frozen waste of the Arctic tundra? That is exactly what Miyax must do after escaping a terrible marriage and running away into nowhere. To her Acrtic village she is Miyax, to her Californian friend, she is Julie. After building a hut on a frost heave, she has no food, only matches, her knife, and a pack of wolves to guide her. After awhile, the wolves lead her to a point near her old village. Now she must make a decision, she can rejoin her village OR stay with the wolves. What should she do, for she is Miyax of the eskimos, but Julie of the wolves.

At the age of thirteen, Miyax is running from an unbearable home situation. Miyax is traveling to Point Hope, where she will take a ship to San Francisco to live with her pen pal Amy. She treks across the frozen tundra of Alaska, fighting cruel winters and starvation. She befriends a pack of wolves on her journey. They take her in as one of them. Miyax loves the wolves and she uses her knowledge of wolves, handed down by her supposedly dead father to communicate them. She makes a meal out of anything... grass, leaves, berries. When it is time for the wolf pack to go on, Miyax is forced to continue her journey alone. While Miyax is subconsciously following the pack, she ponders on her life, during dark days and long sleepless nights, Miyax discovers that the Eskimo way of life is gone with the wind, only a few traces of her past life remain. In the middle of the 1900's Americans have Americanized the large state of Alaska, and the life of their ancestors is gone.

This book is a story of survival in the wilderness, of strong strength and the will to go on. This is a great book for individuals who are fascinated with wolves, and the Eskimos. This is a great story of imagination and life, a very spiritual and enriching book for anyone who has ever felt that they don't belong.

Julie of the Wolves is about a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl named Miyax who gets lost on the Alaskan Tundra. She was running away from her dire husband, Daniel, and trying to get to Point Hope. The book is divided into three sections: Amaroq, the wolf, Miyax, the girl, and Kapugen, the hunter.
In the first section, instead of a human taking care of animals, the wolves are taking care of Miyax. When she is starving on the Tundra, the leader of the pack, Amaroq, slowly accepts her as one of the wolves and treats her as such by feeding her, and by keeping her company.
The second section talks about Miyax's father, Kapugen, presumed dead in the beginning. He raised her to be an old-fashioned Eskimo instead of a contemporary one.
Finally in the third section, hunters in an airplane shoot down the wolf Amaroq for no reason. Hunters usually kill wolves for their ears but the hunters in this case killed him for fun. After she saves Kapu, another wolf, she travels to Point Hope, only to find her father alive. He is no longer an old fashioned Eskimo, but has married a white woman, owns an airplane, and flies hunters. Miyax almost runs away again, but then realizes that the day of the Eskimo is gone and "...points her toes toward Kapugen."
I think that everybody changes over time, and the old ways can't always be kept. Miyax successfully became an old fashioned Eskimo, but at the end of her journey she had to become Julie of the town.

Julie of the Wolves was a great book. I liked it alot. It is one of my favorite books. It was about a girl named Miyax who was lost in the Alaskan Tundra. She is depending on the wolves whether she survives or not. She only packed a weeks worth of food and was planning on going to Point Hope. Then she got lost in the Tundra. She watched the wolves for several days to find out how to ask for food. She made friends with a young wolf who she named Kapu. Kapu helped her get food. I recommend this book to everyone.

Julie of the Wolves is a wonderful story full of nature and excitement. It tells the story of a young Eskimo girl who runs away from an unhappy marriage. She takes off for San Francisco to stay with her pen pal. Alaska is a tough scary place, especially if you're lost! Miyax got lost, and was running out of food. She remembered the stories her father used to tell her before he got lost. Stories of how he got the wolves to help him get food. She could do that no problem, right? Wrong! He never told her how he talked to them and told them he needed help. Can Miyax learn the language of the wolves, or will she die in the wild? Read this adventure and find out for yourself.

Miyax, an Eskimo girl who is called Julie in English, is fourteen and has run away from her arranged marriage. She has a pen pal in San Francisco and she thinks if she can just hike to a nearby town with an airport, she will be able to get to her friend. Before her father left on a fishing trip and never came back, he was a great hunter and could survive in the wilderness, and he had taught Miyax much about survival. She thought everything would be fine.

But then, on her way to the airport, Miyax gets lost in the Alaskan wilderness. Her food supply runs low, and she knows that the harsh winter is coming upon her fast. Near where she is camped is a pack of wolves--four adults and five pups. Miyax knows that wolves take care of each other and if she can just get herself accepted into their pack, they will make sure she has enough food to survive. So she begins studying the way they interact and speak to each other, until she is ready to try imitating them.

I liked the descriptions of the wolves and the ways they interacted. I thought it was interesting to read about their body language and communication. I didn't like the ending of this book, though. After going through so much and being so strong, it seemed like at the end Miyax was defeated.