Inuit Mythology by Evelyn Wolfson, William Sauts Bock (Illustrator)

Children's Literature

Wolfson is reverent toward her subject matter, which is to say that she doesn't shrink from the grisly stuff. Stories such as "The Woman Who Adopted A Bear" and "The Adventures of Kivioq" are at times quite gruesome, just as the original Grimm fairy tales often were. But the stories, "though frightening, always had a cultural focus," the author notes. For each story, she offers a Q&A about its themes and an "expert commentary" to put it into perspective. This will help kids who might otherwise wonder why no one would stop a man from killing a little boy, or why a father would cut off his daughter's fingers and throw them into the sea. 2001, Enslow, $20.95. Ages 8 up. Reviewer:Donna Freedman

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Seven tales from Greenland, Northern Canada (Nunavut), and Alaska are included here, along with considerable supplemental information. An extensive preface touches on the landscape, climate, and history of the culture (including helpful distinctions between Inuit, Native American, and Aleut peoples and descriptions of change up through the present), as well as the group's lifestyle and religion, noting how all of these elements influence the stories. Primary sources are quoted extensively not only in the preface but also in the "Expert Commentary" at the end of each tale. Magic, animals assuming human form, spirit helpers, wild Odyssean adventures (threats from huge caterpillars and giant clams, a giant whose breath can blow someone miles across the tundra), and great hunters all appear. The violence endemic to the tales is related straightforwardly, with no exploitive description. Throughout, the author's emphasis is on the relationship of the environment to the culture, and practices such as infanticide and women's roles are explained in terms of what was necessary for survival. The stippled pen-and-ink drawings are usually effective in conveying action and expression, but the style is ill suited to the introductory map, which fails to clearly convey its information. Though somewhat repetitive and scattershot in its reiteration of points, this collection is useful for its breadth of coverage and the cultural information. Howard Norman's The Girl Who Dreamed Only Geese: And Other Tales of the Far North (Harcourt, 1997), a more attractive collection, has different stories, from more recent Inuit tellers, and more concise context. The raw emotion and events of Wolfson's tales will appeal to a middle-school crowd, but the wilderness of divisions could be tricky.-Nancy Palmer, The Little School, Bellevue, WA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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