998

"Arctic Memories" by Normee Ekoomiak can be used as a guided reading book for grades 4 and up. This book is a look into the life of the Inuit people. Called eskimos by most, the Inuit peoples history and lifestyle are shown through out this book. The main reason I chose to review this book was because for every paragraph written in English there is a translation in the Inuit language. It appears as symbols and shapes and students could look at how writing has evolved over time and what is similar and different about English and Inuit. The last page of the book has an editors note about the Inuit people,the language, and Inuit art which was a great resource to clarify the concepts covered in the story. Students can use this as a reference for a history lesson about the Eskimo lifestyle or as a comparison of language and writing. ( )

Normee Ekoomiak writes about his own and his peoples experiences growing up as Inuit in Northern Quebec. This book is not only fascinating in what it talks about, but that it’s bilingual and uses both the native Inukitut language as well as translated in English. The illustrations are thoughtfully detailed acrylic paintings as well as embroidery of children playing and bouncing on blankets. Any age group can truly appreciate this book. ( )

This book was really interesting for several reasons. First and foremost, it was a bilingual book. What made this book unique is that the two languages it represented were English and Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit. I have never seen a book written in Inuktitut, and I was surprised at how beautiful the written language is. The main purpose of the book was to describe the Inuit lifestyle and culture to the reader. There was a blurb in the back that described the language, culture, and Inuit people. One thing that I found interesting was that Inuktitut sentences are created by adding prefixes and suffixes to root words. Although there were a lot of interesting parts to the book and the premise was unique, the book as a whole was a little bit slow going. I found myself feeling bored as the book continued. Overall, the book was informational and definitely worth reading. ( )

The manner in which the book is written would require the young reader to be familiar with the Inuit people and have a concept of the life and climate near the Arctic Circle. Younger readers will have many questions stemming from the text and information presented. ( )