Customer Reviews

North

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4 star:		(1)
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Think about how cold it gets in the winter in places like Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. It's so cold there in January that when you walk outside, the liquid in your eyes and nose freezes. Multiply that cold by two or three, add in a few polar bears, and you might start to get an idea of what Alvin is facing as he travels from Washington, D.C. towards Baffin Island in Canada. His goal is to follow the trail of his hero, African-American Arctic explorer Matthew Henson. Alvin doesn't have Henson's knowledge of the dangers of the Arctic, but he does have bravery, brains and a lot of luck.

He is rescued from a near-death experience by an Inuk man and ends up traveling across the Canadian Arctic in a dog sledge, eventually coming to live with a man named Idlouk Tana. Idlouk teaches Alvin how to live in the Arctic, complete with bear-fat cookies! Alvin returns home the following spring with a new sense of independence and appreciation for adventure.

Get ready for a cold, thrilling journey that takes Alvin to places where the sun only shines for an hour a day in the winter and seals are essential to survival. Life in the Arctic is harsh and even deadly, and Donna Jo Napoli makes it come to life with simple imagery that perfectly portrays, in Matthew Henson's words, the "fierce beauty" of the land there.

--- Reviewed by Carlie Webber

Young Alvin dreams of adventure, but he never gets to go anywhere. His mother is very protective and afraid of all the dangers lurking in the world. Alvin's father is dead, and though his elderly grandmother understands him better, she basically agrees that there are a lot of dangers and Alvin is too young to explore. When Alvin takes his saved money and sets off to see the parts of Canada where his hero, Matthew Henson, visited, the young boy gets more adventure than he bargained for. The novel starts out a little slow, but once our young thrill seeker begins his journey the intensity of Alvin's exciting travels makes up for the slow beginning. A fun story that also teaches fascinating facts.

Chrissy K. McVay
Author of 'Souls of the North Wind'

I am a 10 year old boy (fifth grade). I loved the book! The runaway theme was amazing. The end was really good. If you're around my age you'll like this book. The book is 354 pages and it only took me 3 days to read because I couldn't put it down. Every other page, something interesting was happening. Buy this book - you won't regret it.

This book is based on a young black teen growing up in an urban town (enough said) with an over protective hard working mom, and elderly grandmother. (dad is deceased) When mom's protection goes over the top, he decides to follow his dream of going north. This book gives a very descriptive view of rural northern life and customs and a touch of early exploration. After touching the hearts of many up-north, his own heart is touched and he comes back home to his mom and grandma with a whole new mature outlook on life. This book is hard to put down after the first few chapters.

North

Wow, a nail bitter, suspenseful, these are all words that describe the best book since Twilight, North. This book is one of those books you just can't put down. One of my bad qualities is judging books by their covers, and I sure am glad I didn't do that for this book or I would have never read it.
It's the classic story of a boy who runs away from home, but there is something about this book that makes it much more intresting. I'm not a big fan of reading but this book I very much enjoyed reading.
If you need a good book to read for a long trip or a day at the beach this book is perfect. Or if you're a bit of a slacker like me and you waited to the last minute to choose a book for school and read it, choose this one you will be done with it before you know it,. And the reason is because you just can't put it down. So weather you need a quick read for school or a book for a vacation the book is the book for you.

The book North, by Donna Jo Napoli, is a fantastic story of a young boy by the name of Alvin who wants to be like his hero, Matthew Henson. Henson was an Arctic explorer and led many expeditions throughout the North. Alvin lives with his mother and grandma, and for him it would be a miracle if he got the permission to walk to the other side of town, much less visit the Arctic from his home in Washington. D.C. He decides he has to run away in order to follow his dream. For only being in the sixth grade, he discovers that there's a lot more potential in himself than he realizes when he embarks on the greatest journey of his life.
When Alvin makes up his mind to leave, it's not because he doesn't love his family and wants to get away from them. It's because he feels that there's a barrier holding him back at home from the freedoms he deserves, and he needs to get past it. His adventure starts out with a train ride to New York. Getting even that far was a challenge, because tickets aren't just given out to sixth grade boys. There has to be parental consent, so Alvin's only hope was to fake a family. By a miracle, Alvin pulls it off twice. Once during the purchase of his ticket, and then again when handing it to the ticket lady. In the "Big Apple", Alvin meets a girl by the name of Hardette who gives him company and someone to talk to. They travel to Toronto together, narrowly avoiding getting Alvin sent home with a border check before arriving in Canada. The two had really begun to become close friends, and it was very hard for them to say goodbye to each other. Alvin new it would be harder to move on without Hardette, but he knew he had to. His next goal is getting to Churchill. This task is even more difficult than the other two combined, because a lady figures he shouldn't be traveling on his own, so she sends security after him. He narrowly avoids getting caught by jumping into an open freight car. In addition to that, he forgets his sleeping bag at another platform which would keep him warm, and he almost misses his train. As he's laying on the floor of the moving car, cold begins to seep through his body, and he feels himself freezing to death as the train rolls farther and farther North. After falling into a deep sleep, he wakes up somewhere else in a room with a man by the name of Manitok, who wants to send Alvin home. By sheer luck, a cowboy from Chicago who's ordered furs from a Northern trapper is also at the train station. The trapper is from Baffin Island. When the trapper, Fox, delivers the furs to the American cowboy (Alvin talked with him while they waited), Alvin asks to go back to Pangnirtung with Fox. After sneaking away from Manitok, Alvin manages to climb aboard Fox's plane and go with him into the Arctic. On Baffin Island, Alvin finds himself in the hands of a missionary. Alvin doesn't stay long with him, and continues to try and find another home. An Inuk, Oodlateeta who also has a wife and children takes him in. At their home, Alvin is provided food and shelter. A while later, Alvin learns that Oodlateeta is supposed to take a convict across the ice on a bobsled for training because of his committed crime. Oodlateeta offers to take Alvin, who gratefully accepts because they're traveling farther North. It's a treacherous journey, but Oodlateeta is skilled at bracing the cold and finding ways to stay alive. At the next village, another Inuk named Pauloosie takes over the responsibility of looking out for Alvin. Then, the moment Alvin's been waiting for arrives! Pauloosie collects feathers from a hermit by the name of Idlouk Tana, and Pauloosie tells Alvin that's where he's sending him. Idlouk Tana lives in the distant mountains of Bylot Island, which are completely set aside from society. Pauloosie leaves Alvin wondering into the bitter wind and cold, looking for the hermit. Alvin feels that this is either the end, or a new beginning. Just then a sled, with Idlouk Tana arrives to take Alvin to safety. For Alvin, this is where his dream of discovering the Arctic really comes true.
This is a great book for anyone who likes a good adventure book with many life or death situations. It keeps you on your toes with surprises that you'd never expect. Overall, this is a wonderful read!

Imagine how cold it gets in the winter in states like Colorado and Maine. From my experiences, it is tremendously cold. Now imagine what it would be like to be at the top of the world where it is more than -30 degrees below zero. Would you have the guts to stand up to the harsh weather conditions?

Well, this is exactly what Alvin, the main character in the book North by Donna Jo Napoli does. North is an extremely well-written book in the third person with the theme of bravery. This is one of the best realistic fiction books I have ever read.

Alvin is a middle school student in Washington D.C. who was doing a book project on African-American heroes so he picked Matthew Henson, a North Pole Explorer. Alvin learns all the great challenges that Matthew Henson went through that would seem impossible. On page 41, the author describes what a classmate said to Alvin which drove him to start his adventure.

"In your dreams," Chanelle laughed. "You'd never have the guts to get near a polar bear in real life. And you'd never travel that far. You the mamma's boy, I hear."

Alvin then takes the risks that no other boy would be able to face which included escaping from home and jumping on many different trains to take to the Artic, standing up to a polar bear, and finally surviving the harsh conditions in the Arctic. Over the course of the book, Alvin learned how to survive and certainly became brave to walk away from two protective people in his life (his mom and grandma) who did not even let him walk to school on his own and then to travel away for more than half a year. If you are into exciting and intense books, you should definitely read North. It is a quick read and is an unbelievable book!

I've read at least half of Napoli's books, and have enjoyed all the ones that I've read, but this is my favorite so far. Her amazing retelling of Rapunzel, ZEL, was my favorite for years and I was surprised when I liked NORTH even better.

I find most of her books are very much adult in there content. These are not your sweet Disney fairy tales. They are harsh and crude at times and not for the light reader. The story was very good and you could feel the cold. She is a great descriptive writer.