Ood-le-uk the Wanderer

I am now at a point in my Newbery quest where I am just googling titles (only 16 left after reading Ood-le-uk) and seeing if I can find the text somewhere online. No libraries anywhere near me have any physical copies. I found this one on some digital library based in San Francisco that allows 14 day check-outs to read the text online. I suppose at some point even this method will prove fruitless and then who knows what I'll do!

Synopsis: Ood-le-uk is a creative, introspective Eskimo boy who doesn't feel particularly comfortable participating in the hunting escapades of the men in his tribe because he is often afraid and others consider him weak. Then on one particularly dangerous hunting trip, he gets separated from land on an ice floe and ultimately ends up (after ingeniously killing a walrus and making a boat) among a tribe of Siberian nomadic reindeer herders (who actually have lost their herds to sickness and are therefore no longer nomadic). He gets adopted into the chief's family and goes on many harrowing journeys, eventually acquires great wealth and becomes familiar with new cultures and people and religion and everything else that comes with travel. Finally, several years later, he builds barges and brings his adopted brother and other Siberian men with him to try to find his homeland and family in Alaska . . . and they do! And then he sets up a trade route across the Bering Straight between his people in North America and the Siberian tribes.

Reaction: I actually really enjoyed it! It reminded me of Gary Paulsen books at the beginning when Ood-le-uk has to survive on his own with only a few weapons. I was impressed that the authors were able to develop Ood-le-uk so well as a character and a hero without dialogue, but I still wished there was more conversation. Honestly, this is a people and a part of the world I know almost nothing about and I don't think I've ever read a book about them, either, so I have no idea how accurate any of the book was. It seemed like the authors had done some research and despite their clearly WASP worldview, had tried to depict the world from an Inuit boy's perspective. One thing is certain: I could never survive in a world that cold.

New Land

Another homesteading book with a headstrong, clever 17-year-old female protagonist? Yes, please! I'm not sure how I ended up reading New Land directly after The Jumping-Off Place (other than the fact that I found them both online), but there are so many similarities that I found myself comparing the two novels the whole time. Both chronicle a family of homesteaders with strong teenage girl leads, both are set in the early 1900s, both families have to deal with a "villainous" family that goes to great lengths to get them to fail on proving up (though with different motives) including vandalism and theft, both deal with crop failure and both climax with a really traumatic yet triumphant experience during a terrifying snow storm.

The books had very different feels, though, and I was more captivated by New Land. It focused more on the national and local politics at the time (not very interesting to me) and on the education required to farm successfully (somewhat interesting) and the protagonist's efforts to reform and strengthen her family members. I will admit: I wished there had been some romance! I think that's the first time I've thought that while reading a Newbery, but there was something about Sayre that just made me wish she had a prospect of some sort. Still good, nonetheless. 3.5 stars

The Jumping-Off Place

Resilience is a hot topic I've been hearing and reading about a lot lately. Studies show the lack of it is a major factor in kids dropping out of college and the armed forces during or after the first year. Studies also show that having it is a key predictor to one's happiness. As such, I've also been reading some great articles about how to teach kids to develop it. In a nutshell, allowing your children to struggle, to experience hardship and to make their own decisions are keys to helping them become resilient. And though none of the articles specifically mentioned it, after reading The Jumping-Off Place I am confident that sending your kids to homestead on their own would also be a fabulous way to help them develop this coveted virtue. Seriously, the four orphaned Linville siblings in TJOP seem to be the very definition of resilient, resourceful youth. It's also pretty cool that the story is a somewhat autobiographical account of the author's experience homesteading in South Dakota with her husband.

After a few very slow old honors, The Jumping-Off Place was actually a nice reassurance that kids in the 1930s may have had something interesting to read. There were some elements that reminded me of Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie and the story was well written. 3 stars!