The walrus and the caribou

Versions of this traditional Inuit creation story can be found across the Arctic, from Labrador to Alaska. A long time ago, when the world was taking shape, a little woman named Guk begins breathing life into the world. She builds a prototype animal out of rocks to figure out where the body parts should go. From this model she breathes the walrus to life out of her sealskin parka, but she puts a set of giant antlers on its head. These huge headpieces cause the hunters' kayaks to overturn. Not good. Next she breathes into her sealskin pants and creates the caribou, which sports big tusks jutting out of its mouth--which it uses to charge the hunters. Guk's solution is to call the two animals "Qaigissik, qaigissik" and have them trade some body parts. Kicking angrily, with braids flying, she also punishes the caribou for hurting the hunters. The humorous artwork done for every double-page, full-bleed spread shows the resilient, problem-solving Guk in a variety of poses and emotional states as she tinkers with and refines her creations. Brown, blue, and white landscapes of rock, water, and ice form authentic backgrounds. A glossary gives notes on Inuktitut pronunciation and language resources. A fun final challenge asks readers to imagine the possibilities of creating their own animal.

In this playful retelling of an Inuit origin story, a feisty elder creates two of the Arctic's most celebrated animals. Guk, an Inuit woman with graying braids and light brown skin, has the power to "breath[e] life into the world." With imagination and exuberance, Guk creates the walrus and the caribou. Young readers may notice that Guk's creations aren't quite as they should be: The walrus sports "huge antlers" while the caribou's snout contains fearsome tusks. Aside from their comical appearances (rendered whimsically in Cutler's cartoony illustrations), the walrus' and caribou's mismatched features also wreak havoc on the human world. The walrus' antlers accidentally "overturn the kayaks in the water"; meanwhile, "every time it saw a hunter, the caribou would charge him with its tusks." Guk addresses these issues by gleefully swapping the appendages to better suit the animals. In a final act of reckoning, Guk punishes the caribou for its cantankerous attacks against the hunters, via a swift kick--thereby giving the caribou its distinctively flat forehead and skittishness of humans. Inuit author Harper's high-spirited version of this Indigenous oral tale will make a delightful addition to both libraries and personal collections. Backmatter includes a short Inuktitut glossary with a link to more Inuktitut language resources. A lively #ownvoices romp into the power of intention--and the hilarity of trial and error. (author's introduction, glossary) (Picture book. 5-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.