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.