Neeluk : An Eskimo Boy in the Days of the Whaling Ships [Hardcover]

Frances Kittredge (Author), Howard Weyahok Rock (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

Weaving history, art, and literature, these stories follow a young Inupiat Eskimo boy through a year of his life at the turn of the last century.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Three nonfiction titles explore key moments in history. Neeluk: An Eskimo Boy in the Days of the Whaling Ships by Frances Kittredge, charts a year in the lives of the Inupiat people in the late 1880s, beginning in July when the villagers move from igloos to tents made of walrus hide, and ending in June when the first whaling ships arrive to trade for needed supplies. Alaskan artist and activist Howard "Weyahok" Rock's oil paintings, which open each chapter, record a forgotten way of life, from fishing in a kayak to carrying a baby in a papoose.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Gr 2-6-Told in very simple prose, this series of stories follows the life of seven-year-old Neeluk, an Inupiat of western Alaska in the late 1800s, through an Arctic year. The quietness of the narrative and the remoteness of the setting and time might seem a dubious attraction to young readers; however, adults will want to help them find these stories of everyday life in a village of subsistence hunters because of the unique picture they provide. The author was a visitor to the Inupiaq village of Wales for two years beginning in 1900. More than 30 years later, Kittredge produced these stories of Neeluk, a fun-loving but thoughtful character, based on her notes and interviews from her Alaskan days. Kittredge died in 1940, so it was left to her grandniece to reassemble the stories and Rock's oil paintings and line drawings that now accompany each story. She checked the authenticity and validity of the stories with people of present-day Wales and has given all of us the unusual gift of a window into another time and place. This is a well-designed document of a life that is often "exoticized." It is all the more remarkable that it is accessible to elementary students.

Sue Sherif, Alaska State Library, Anchorage

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 88 pages
• Publisher: Alaska Northwest Books (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882405454
• ISBN-13: 978-0882405452
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,034,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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