Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 2^-4. In 1913, a Canadian research boat named Fish became trapped in the ice on an Arctic expedition. Along with a captain, crew, scientists, and explorers, the ship carried sled dogs and some Inupiaq people, including a family with two small daughters on which the story centers. In language as stark and elemental as the landscape, the author of the Caldecott Medal^-winning Snowflake Bentley (1998) describes how the group survived using Inupiaq cultural traditions, which are presented in detail reminiscent of the Little House books. Impatient readers unimpressed by survival stories may find these descriptions slow going, but Martin includes details that will fascinate kids (Inupiaq sunglasses--how cool!). The quiet, intriguing language, with a poet's attention to sound, will lull young ones into the story's drama, as will Beth Krommes' captivating scratchboard illustrations, suggestive of Lois Lenski's work in their rounded shapes and bold lines. With its picture-book format and well-paced chapters, this is a great choice for primary classroom read-alouds. --Gillian Engberg
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The author merges fact and conjecture with mixed results in this dense account of the 1913 expedition of a ship named the Karluk (the Aleutian word for "fish"). The vessel sailed north from British Columbia toward the Arctic Circle and stopped at Alaska's Point Barrow to pick up an I¤upiaq family. The expedition's mission, "to study the plants and people in the high north," takes a backseat when the Karluk becomes locked in ice and eventually sinksÄsurvival becomes the crew's goal. Unlike Snow Bentley, in which Martin neatly balanced the historical framework with telling anecdotes, here details of the expedition outweigh the human storyÄdespite some interesting facts (e.g., "Qiruk, the mother, could look at a man,/ cut a fur skin with her round-bladed ulu, and sew a pair of pants/ that would fit him exactly"). Though the author guesses about how various family members feel while awaiting rescue (she writes about one daughter, "Maybe she looked into the seal oil lamp and heard/ her grandmother singing the song of home./ And she did not feel so lonely"), Martin does not speculate about why the I¤upiaq family leaves their grandmother and their home to travel by sea with strangers. Despite scattered moments of suspense and Krommes's (Grandmother Winter) engaging, earth-toned scratchboard art, youngsters are apt to find this journey laborious and slow moving. Ages 6-up. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-6-Martin has attempted a difficult task-to tell children the story of the last voyage of the Karluk. The tale, told several times before by survivors of the Expedition, is by all accounts a dramatic one. The Karluk, a past-its-prime, wooden Aleutian fishing vessel, was appropriated by Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, who wanted to prove his theory that a continent underlay the Arctic ice cap. When the ship became icebound, he left the crew and a small I-upiaq contingent to fend for themselves. From there the Karluk drifted, was trapped fast in the ice, and then sank. Thanks to the skills of hunters Kataktovik and Kurraluk and skin sewer Qiruk (wife of Kurraluk), 14 of the party survived an ordeal that spanned 14 months. Briggs's poetic retelling focuses on the I-upiaq family, particularly Kurraluk and Qiruk's two young daughters. Evocative scratchboard illustrations show many details of the cultural and physical environment that cannot be detailed in the text. Black-and-white photos of the survivors will remind readers that this fantastic story is not just a yarn. The text may be too long to read aloud in one sitting to younger children, but there is no doubt that listeners will want to hear the whole story.-Sue Sherif, Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library, AK (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary, Intermediate) A year before Ernest Shackleton's extraordinary Antarctic adventure, a similar event occurred in the Arctic, with two children among the survivors. In summer 1913, a refitted whaling vessel (the Karluk, Aleutian for ""fish"") headed north from Point Barrow, only to be locked in the ice. Aboard were several Canadian scientists led by Vilhjalmur Stefansson; two Inupiaq hunters, Kataktovik and Kurraluk; Kurraluk's wife and two little daughters, Pagnasuk and Makpii; a crew of a dozen; forty sled dogs; and a cat. Soon after, at a time when Stefansson and several members of his team were away from the craft, a floe broke from the ice pack, setting the Karluk adrift with the others still aboard. Stefansson, reporting to Ottawa before continuing his arctic explorations elsewhere, predicted that the boat would sink but the people survive. Many did-but only after a year-long ordeal. Several months at ""Shipwreck Camp"" on the floe were followed by a hundred-mile trek across treacherous sea ice to desolate Wrangel Island. Rescue came in the nick of time, after a hungry summer that would surely have ended in starvation with winter's onset. Martin walks a careful line here between fact and fiction, forthrightly declaring her stance with the words ""Based on a True Story,"" which appear in large type on both cover and title page. Martin tells the story from the point of view of eight-year-old Pagnasuk, who, as child of the ill-equipped expedition's hunter and seamstress, suffered fewer deprivations than most. Thus, the author can focus on the adventure and on Inupiaq expertise and courage rather than on the improvidence, suffering, and dissension-not to mention what was evidently Stefansson's outrageous abandonment of the ship-that feature in first-hand accounts and books intended for older readers. Told with clarity, grace, and the scrupulous use of such words as perhaps and I think, the book includes a brief bibliography, a map (appearing, unfortunately, only on the back of the book), photographs of the survivors, and a list of those who set out and what became of them (Makpii's daughter was among those interviewed). Beth Krommes's scratchboard art is outstanding. Ice, artifacts, and characters are delineated in handsome black, softened with crosshatching and a limited palette that ranges from sealskin brown to ice blue; sweeps of white space pull readers into windswept vistas or set off cozy iglu interiors. Art, narration, and information are all perfectly integrated in a story that makes a fine introduction to arctic exploration. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
