The Storytellers' Club: The Picture-Writing Women of the Arctic
Adult/High School-Hailed asThe Joy Luck Clubof the Arctic, this novel captures the world of the Inupiaq of Alaska. Interwoven with the depiction of Cox's great-grandmother's daily activities are the oral stories of her ancestors. These tales have been kept alive by a group of women who meet regularly during the dark months to share stories. The storyteller weaves the story while the other participants carefully draw symbols, lines, or shapes that help them to remember it. The book is set in the 1920s, but the tales are from the women's youth, around the late 1800s. The stories range from the everyday-favorite recipes-to legends of giants and spiders that live among the people. They are lessons in history, both because these are women who never learned to read and write, and because they record the history of the Alaskan Indians. Their power is that they contain universal themes: family unity, respect for others, welcoming strangers, building up the weak, overcoming difficulty, and wrestling with grief. Readers will learn about the federal government's plan to bring education to the people of Alaska and how the Indians responded. In the end, teens will appreciate the difficulty of life in the far North.-Erin Dennington, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.