Julie of the Wolves [Hardcover]

My 8 year old daughter was given this book to read by her 3rd grade teacher. She was really enjoying the book up until the end of Part II, right before she the main character runs away from her husband (they are 13 years old and it is an arranged marriage) and joins the wolves. I hadn't read the book and was somewhat shocked when she came to me and asked me to read one page to her and explain what was happening. It was the part where her husband Daniel forces himself on her because his friends around town were teasing him that he was "..dumb Daniel. He has a wife and he can't mate her." He proceeds to "press his lips against her mouth", she pulls away and he tears her dress from her shoulder, takes her down to the floor, and "crushes her with his body". Then "the room spun, and grew blurry. Daniel cursed, kicked violently, and lay still." Then he gets up and runs out of the house and yells out "Tomorrow, tomorrow I can, can, can, ha, ha," he bleated piteously. She vomits and then moves into action and leaves him.

Now, I have talked with my daughter about how babies are made, ie. mating, but this was a little different and it brought up a whole other conversation. I know the book is a Newberry Award winner and a very well-written book that most children enjoy, I just wish I had known about this part. The publisher marks the book as ages 10 and up but that is still a young age to have that particular situation explained. And maybe some children would read right past it and not really catch what actually happened but parents might want to know about that so they can be prepared for what to say if their child comes and asks what happened on page 102! I wish I had known about it! Hope this helps if you're deciding whether or not to buy this book for your young daughter.

Julie, an Inuit Eskimo from Alaska, is born with the name Miyax. Because her mother dies when Miyax is barely four years old, Miyax's father, Kapugen, brings her up in the traditional Eskimo ways and teaches her a life of co-existence with the natural world. When Miyax is nine years old, her Aunt takes her away from her father because Julie is suppose to go to school. There she is around Americanized Eskimos, who call her Julie, and she starts to believe that she has lived a strange life with her father in the Alaskan wilderness. At thirteen, Julie finds herself in a bad situation and attempts to run away to San Francisco where her pen pal lives. Even though Julie is running away from her Eskimo upbringing, she winds up depending on the ways of her people. Out in the wilderness, she learns a lot about who she is. This book is about discovery and acceptance as Julie defines herself through her own culture and becomes Miyax again. Jean Craighead George interprets a particular culture, Inuit Eskimo, and defines it throughout the story. Julie, as a young girl, learns the importance of her culture and the process of identifying herself within it. However, Julie, as an adolescent, rebels against her culture because it has become out-of-date and is considered old fashion to live as the traditional Eskimo's once did. Julie learns from the American Eskimo kids about the modern world and about a life that is much different than what she is used to. Julie also has a pen pal who lives in San Francisco who has been sending Julie pictures of her home and telling her about strange and beautiful things that Julie wants to see. She begins to believe that the way she was brought up was, indeed, very strange and therefore not the way that she wants to live anymore. However, on her quest to live in San Francisco, Julie finds herself lost and she has nothing but herself and the wilderness to keep her alive. Drawing on her Inupiat Eskimo upbringing and believing in the Eskimo ways of intelligence, fearlessness, and love, Julie learns to see her people's ways as the way she wants to live. Julie becomes Miyax again, and talks to the wolves, as her father taught her, and gains their trust so that they help her to survive. Julie realizes that she doesn't want to live in San Francisco with all their modern ways and searches to find a traditional Eskimo settlement. Miyax discovers that her father is alive and that he was the man in the helicopter who killed Amaroq, the dominant wolf, for sport. At first when Miyax came across the Eskimo settlement, that her father is living at, she is excited to go back to her heritage. However, she discovers that he is living with a Gussak, an American Eskimo, and that he is no longer living the life of a traditional Eskimo but has become Americanized, and she learns the truth about the man who killed Amaroq. Miyax feels betrayed and leaves her father's home, only to realize that she has no other choice but to live as the people of the Eskimo Settlement do. I believe that Jean Craighead George does a fantastic job of portraying a young girl who is trying to find herself and in doing so, Julie explores her culture and is able to define herself within it. Julie figures out what she really wants and why because of this. In the beginning of the book, Julie is running away from her upbringing and running toward a modern new world. Julie chooses, in the end, to embrace her traditional upbringing and finds peace within herself and an acceptance of herself that she so needs. An acceptance that is so strong that even the thought of living in a village that desecrates many of the thinks Inuit Eskimos believe in, she is still strong enough to know who she is inside and decides to live with her father. Living as an Americanized Eskimo cannot brake down her beliefs or take away her true heritage, which she has gained strength from and a sense of herself.

...By Wang

...Jean ... She got the idea for this book after she saw a girl walking alone in the tundra to visit a faraway friend. Her other inspiration was a regal alpha male wolf in the Denali National Park. ...

The story begins in the freezing artic winter. Miyax, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl, is alone on the tundra-covered North Slope of Alaska. She has spent several days without much nourishment. Now she has turned to a pack of wolves. She is hoping to learn to communicate with them. Then, hopefully, the pack will give her food from their hunt. So far, her attempts have been hopeless. But, if her father, Kapugen had once done it, so could she.

Miyax had been watching the pack for days. She was Eskimo. Eskimos, like other Native Americans, had great respect for nature. Although Miyax sometimes believed the old Eskimo traditions were a little silly, she did love nature. ... The alpha male, or leader of the pack, was Amaroq, the Eskimo word for wolf. His mate was the beautiful Silver. Amaroq's friend was Nails. ...There was also another who didn't stick with the rest of the pack as much: Jello. He was small and quite wiggly.

Reading Julie of the Wolves was like going on an epic adventure through the artic tundra. On a scale of one to ten, I'd give this book an eleven. It's not at all surprising that Jean Craighead George won a Newbery Medal for this book. I liked it when Miyax communicated to the wolves. ... I recommend that anyone who enjoys nature read Julie of the Wolves!