Tuk and the Whale [Hardcover]

Raquel Rivera (Author), Mary Jane Gerber (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 2 and up

During the early 1600s, there was an active whaling industry in Canada. Whale oil was used to light the streets and buildings of European cities and to manufacture leather, wool, and soap. The baleen was used to make everything from carriage springs to corsets. Told from the point of view of a young Inuit boy named Tuk, this story imagines what might have happened if the people of Tuk's Baffin Island winter camp had encountered European whalers, blown far from their usual whaling route. Both the hunters and the whalers prize the bowhead whale for different reasons. Together, they set out on a hunt, though they are all on new and uncertain ground. Scrupulously researched and vetted, this early chapter book inspires discussion about communication between two groups of people with entirely different world views, early whaling practices, and a productive partnership that also foreshadows serious problems to come. Simply and beautifully told, Tuk and the Whale includes a glossary, historical note, and recommendations for further reading.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3–5—Set in the 1600s in the early days of Arctic whaling, this short chapter book imagines the first encounter between whalers and the native Inuit people. Black-and-white illustrations, two per chapter, show the action at a distance and help readers visualize the vast and flat terrain. Tuk first sees the whaling ship come over the horizon and, when it arrives, he is smitten, especially when the whalers give him a wonderful knife. While some of the men caution against participating, Tuk and his father, plus a few others, climb into the whalers' boat to hunt for Arvik, as the Inuit call the bowhead whale. If the hunt is successful, the Inuit families will have what they need to survive. Not so the whalers, who need to fill their ship's hold. The story captures well the tentative and taut encounter, the danger, and the event that culminates in Tuk's saving the entire party. But while some textual clues help, readers may have to flip to the glossary to remember what maktaaq, Qallunaaq, or Quilliit are. Like Jane Yolen's Encounter (Harcourt, 1992), this story foreshadows troubles to come, ending with Grandfather's warning that "you can learn a great deal from those men, both good and bad," and a warning about coveting things, but Tuk happily cradles his new knife and looks to the future.—Susan Hepler, formerly at Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA
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Review

"Through the eyes and voice of Tuk, a young Inuit boy, readers see, hear and feel the excitement and apprehension that the lost whalers' arrival engenders. . . [a] simple, elegant, eloquent tale. . . Mary Jane Gerber's delightful pen-and-ink drawings capture moments large and small." -- Globe and Mail

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Groundwood Books; First edition (April 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0888996896
• ISBN-13: 978-0888996893
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,740,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Nicely researched portrayal of the Inuit culture, January 1, 2009

By 

The Well-Read Child "http://wellreadchild.blo... - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tuk and the Whale (Hardcover)

It's the early 1600s, and Tuk, a young Inuit boy sees a giant ship approaching his group's winter camp on the Baffin Islands. It's a ship of European whalers who've been blown off course. These "Qallunnaat" (foreigners) are malnourished and exhausted, and they appeal to the islanders for their help catching "Arvik," a breed of a gigantic and elusive black whale. There is distrust and uncertainty on both sides, as is evidenced by Tuk's thoughts early on in the book:

"Strangers couldn't be trusted. They weren't related by blood, or by marriage. They didn't bring news of friends and family in other camps. They could take things, break things--even hurt people. It was easy for strangers to do bad things to people because they didn't know anyone. And they could always just leave again." (p. 16)


Nevertheless, realizing that the whale could feed their people for months, the people of the camp agree to help out. What follows is an account of an exciting hunt for the great Arvik.

Tuk and the Whale is a story that provides a glimpse into what life was like for the Inuit people very early on in the whaling industry. We see the importance of whales to both the European whalers and the Inuits, though both are very different. Throughout the story, readers are introduced to a number of Inuit words, and a short glossary in the back of the book defines each one.

It's obvious that Ms. Rivera conducted thorough research to write this book, and she did an exceptional job of seamlessly weaving details of her research into a story that reveals the importance of family, teamwork, and tradition. I appreciate the fact that Ms. Rivera does not neatly tie the book up in a pretty little bow. Instead, it foreshadows the serious troubles that befell the native peoples in the boom of the whaling industry.

Young readers will enjoy reading this book, and it would make an excellent introduction to a unit on the whaling industry and the Inuit culture.