Summary
Summary
Native Alaskan teens shipped off to a Catholic boarding school find an unexpected way to survive when the ways of the white community are imposed on them
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Perseverance is at the center of this novel that highlights commitment to place and family and reveals a government program through which Alaska Natives were injected with radioactive iodine. Based on the experiences of the author's husband, this is the story of an Inupiaq man who attended Catholic boarding school as a youth. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Edwardson (Blessing's Bead) crafts a multilayered story set in 1960s Alaska, told from the perspectives of children coming of age in a cultural contact zone. When 12-year-old Luke and his brothers are sent to a punitive Catholic boarding school, he knows that he will have to sacrifice his Inupiaq name. But he isn't prepared to lose his youngest brother, Isaac, who is too young to enroll and is sent to live with a family in Texas. At Sacred Heart, Eskimos, Indians, and whites initially segregate themselves by ethnicity, but as they are touched by insidious outside forces, the racial boundaries fall away, and their voices become unified. Amiq, a defiant Eskimo, challenges authority, and a stubborn girl named Chickie longs to open closed doors, finding love with an Eskimo student; meanwhile, a quiet boy gathers the courage to write the truth. Edwardson distills a complex period in American history, examining the Cold War, the moon race, and the Kennedy era with cold, crisp illumination. Her beautifully styled prose offers strong descriptions of an isolated world and a mosaic of identities that must be sutured back together after being broken off at the root. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Edwardson (Blessing's Bead, rev. 11/09) sets her ambitious novel in 1960-1965 Alaska, primarily at a Catholic boarding school drawing indigenous children from all over the state. She juggles a large cast of characters and multiple narrators; incorporates historical events; and addresses a host of issues, from racism to the institutional abuse of Native Alaskan children to the ingrained animosity between Eskimo and Indian students. Edwardson tells her story from a variety of points of view, concentrating on a few central characters: Luke (so named because white people can't pronounce his Inupiaq name), the oldest of three brothers newly and reluctantly arrived at the school from their Arctic Alaskan village; another newcomer, Chickie, daughter of a Swedish storekeeper; and established rivals Sonny (who is Athabascan) and Amiq (Eskimo). There is much tragedy here: Luke's youngest brother is summarily adopted out, without the family's knowledge or permission; Inupiaq students are used as guinea pigs in an experiment involving the ingestion of radioactive iodine; Luke's middle brother dies in a plane crash. There is, however, also first love, friendships both unexpected and deep, brave acts of civil disobedience, and a reunion. The novel is a bit crowded, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the characters' voices (the author distributes her gift for lyric language perhaps too generously). But the story is a powerful one, pervaded with a sense of immediacy that increases its impact; that Luke's experiences are based on Edwardson's husband's adds even more poignancy. martha v. parravano From HORN BOOK, Copyright The Horn Book, used with permission.
Kirkus Review
The story of three Iupiaq children (then known as Eskimos) living above the Arctic Circle who are sent to a Catholic boarding school with other children, white and Indian.Told by five different narrators covering the time period 1960-65, this is essentially Luke's story, whose nativeand, as the title indicates, difficult-to-pronouncename is not revealed until toward the end.Forbidden to use their language, fed unfamiliar food and under the thumb of priests and nuns, some strict and some kind but whose religion is unfamiliar, Luke's homesickness is visceral. The good wishes and intentions of other children, their teachers and their parents all fail to offer comfort or to soften the hardships endured. Details of the outside world and the concerns of the day are woven in to the narrative, often highlighting how astonishingly oblivious the world is to the reality of life in Alaska. The rivalry between Indian and Eskimo is made equally vivid, along with the stereotypes and bias that both sides believe about the other. Readers will see these children become adolescents, imbibing of the rebellion that the decade is known for in the lower 48 and allowing proximity to build bridges of understanding and hope, even in the midst of death and loss. Not herself Iupiaq, Edwardson (Blessing's Bead, 2009) makes clear in a note that this is a reflection of the childhood experiences of her contemporaries, including her husband, on whom the character of Luke is based.Painful, inspiring and affectionate. (Historical fiction. 10-14) ]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Luke's Inupiaq name is hard like ocean ice grinding at the shore or wind pounding the tundra. But at Alaska's Sacred Heart boarding school, which Luke attends with his brother, Bunna (a third brother is effectively kidnapped and sent to Texas), his name and the nuances of his culture aren't treated as being important. It's the 1960s, though, and the times are a-changing. In lovely, evocative language, Edwardson weaves Luke's story of displacement, loss, and growth into those of his fellow students' in a story about the collision of culture and the growing awareness of civil rights. It's a testament to her skill that even clueless priests and sisters at the school come across as rounded characters; several of them are even aware that military experiments with radioactive drinks, allowed on native students, may be suspect. Some point-of-view changes from first person to third-person omniscient are jarring; nevertheless, this is an illuminating novel of changing perspectives.--Cruze, Karen Copyright 2010 Booklist