The Trap by John Smelcer

From the Publisher

A gripping wilderness adventure and survival story

It was getting colder. Johnny pulled the fur-lined hood of his parka over his head and walked towards his own cabin with the sound of snow crunching beneath his boots.

“He should be back tomorrow,” he thought, as a star raced across the sky just below the North Star.

“He should be back tomorrow for sure.”

Seventeen-year-old Johnny Least-Weasel knows that his grandfather Albert is a stubborn old man and won't stop checking his own traplines even though other men his age stopped doing so years ago. But Albert Least-Weasel has been running traplines in the Alaskan wilderness alone for the past sixty years. Nothing has ever gone wrong on the trail he knows so well.

When Albert doesn't come back from checking his traps, with the temperature steadily plummeting, Johnny must decide quickly whether to trust his grandfather or his own instincts.

Written in alternating chapters that relate the parallel stories of Johnny and his grandfather, this novel poignantly addresses the hardships of life in the far north, suggesting that the most dangerous traps need not be made of steel.

Children's Literature

This simple yet haunting novel portrays the best and the worst of the lives of the modern day Alaskan Native Americans. The story focuses on men of two different generations: seventeen-year-old Johnny Least-Weasel and his elderly grandfather Albert. Albert has been checking his own trap lines for sixty years and sees no reason to stop, until a freak accident traps him. Trapped and chained to a tree mere feet from his snowmobile and survival equipment, Albert has plenty of time to ponder his fate and contemplate his life. Johnny is worried about his grandfather's prolonged absence, but other community members convince him that his concern is unnecessary. Johnny waits as long as he can before anxiety overcomes him and he sets out to look for his overdue grandfather. Written in chapters alternating between Johnny and Albert, the similarities and the differences of the two men's lives stand out in icy relief. Johnny wants to improve his life and moves toward that end by taking high school correspondence courses, necessary because the village has not been able to keep a teacher. Johnny points out the high suicide rate amongst teens, caught between a world of plenty they can see on cable TV and the frozen tundra they are ill equipped to leave. Albert is holding on to the old ways in a world where they are no longer enough for survival. The journeys of both men are compelling and dramatic in addition to the no-holds-barred portrayal of the Alaskan wilderness. A fantastic read that transcends genres to appeal to many different YA readers.

VOYA

Beauty abounds in this tiny epic, similar to the sad song that Johnny Least-Weasel's grandfather has sung to his wife throughout their many years of marriage. In this story, Smelcer, of Ahtna Athabaskan Indian descent and the only surviving speaker, reader, and writer of the Ahtna language, seems to straddle the line flawlessly between an ancient legend and contemporary fiction. When Albert Least-Weasel gets his leg caught in a trap in the dead of winter in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, readers hear the story from both his perspective and that of his grandson left worried back home, even though his grandfather has long been the strongest man that he has ever known. Smelcer never hits a wrong note, particularly when he strikes the more somber ones. His characters act with quiet dignity, either as Johnny frets or as Albert works to survive against the wolves and the looming frost. There is grace to their motions, even when they are sitting still or as they race the clock. The suspense is played on an everyday level, which is why it works; Smelcer never goes for thriller status, electing instead to tell a tale of contemplative melancholy. How long the story lingers in readers' minds really depends on them; one gets the sense that for the author, this is a modern-day Indian story that simply had to be told.

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9-Johnny Least-Weasel worries that his grandfather hasn't returned home from checking his trapline. The elderly Indian packed ample supplies onto his snowmobile, but has been out far too long in the plummeting temperatures of the Alaskan winter. Cultural pride and reluctance to disrespect an elder get in the way of search plans until Johnny's grandmother can wait no longer, and she sends him out to find her husband. Only readers know that Albert Least-Weasel has caught his leg in a trap, several feet away from his supplies, and is unable to free himself. Chapters alternate between Albert's dilemma and Johnny's failed attempts to raise concern among his uncles, creating a suspenseful page-turner in which the old man's survival becomes a race against time. Albert's wilderness skills are sharp and described in detail, such as fending off wolves with a spear made from a cedar branch and creating a rabbit snare from a shoelace. Excerpts from a folktale about a warrior named Blackskin appear at the beginning of each chapter, illustrating how present-day life for the Least-Weasel family is still the same, in many ways, as it was for their ancestors. A great addition to survival/adventure collections or Native American fiction.-Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Readers will be clinging to the pages of this graceful, haunting story about a 17-year-old Alaskan Indian searching for his lost grandfather, and about the grandfather trying to survive in the freezing wilderness. Old Albert Least-Weasel still maintains his trap lines, still going out alone, when he finds himself caught in one of his traps. Johnny, his grandson, helps his grandmother and works at his job while worrying about the old man. Smelcer tells their stories in alternating chapters, building suspense as time runs out for Albert. Meanwhile, Johnny reflects on the tiny, dying town in which he finds himself trapped. How rare to find lyrical writing combined with real suspense. Smelcer accentuates the humanity of his characters as he reveals how the strengths of their ancestors survive in these modern people. Equally memorable and enjoyable for children, teens and adults. A small masterpiece. (Fiction. 10+)

Product Details

• ISBN: 0805079394
  
• ISBN-13: 9780805079395
• Format: Hardcover, 176pp
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated
• Pub. Date: September 2006
• Edition Number: 1
• Sales Rank: 47,484
• Age Range: 9 to 12