Julie of the Wolves

Author: Jean Craighead George

Main Character: Julie aka Miyax

What an interesting book. I really like that she learned to coexist and even become a part of the family with a pack of wolves. The family took her in as her own and protected her and cared for her. In return, she protected them when she could and cared for them immensely. Amaroq was the head wolf, following in order of status were Silver, Nails, Kapu, Zing, Zat, Zit, Sister, and Jello. She went out on her own as a 13 year old girl who is part American and part Eskimo. She understood some of the ways of the modern world and be eventually she found that being an Eskimo was who she really was. This a story of survival and of learning. I found the bond of the wolves and her very poignant. She lost her mother at age 4, her father at the age of 11 and was sent to live with an aunt to go to school. To her, her father was the wisest man that lived. Eventually she found that her father had not died, but had run away to start a new life. He was different and became all the things that she despised about the Americans. Her disappointment led her to live her life on the tundra rather than go to San Francisco. Overall, it was a great story, though the underlying premise of her marriage and the near-rape experience for her running away seems a little mature for some of my students. I am sure they will take more away than that part when they read this book. This is one of the books on my science books list.