Amiqqaq is an Inupiaq boy whose father and crew goes out hunting for whales. They manage to get a whale and prepare to bring it back to the community for a feast and celebration. Amiqqaq is concerned though because he wonders what will become of the whale’s spirit. The author shares the traditions and their link to survival and spirituality. ( )

Personal Response: This book is a treasure for learing about Inupiat culture. It is real. The village is portrayed as it actually is in time, with both traditional acts (families living together, whale hunt, celebration) and influences from outside the village, like snow machines & rifles. I appreciated the spirit of the village that was portrayed.

Curricular Connections: This book would be useful for learning about other cultures. There are both Inupiaq and English versions. The author also lends informational text about life in an Alaskan village.

A young Iñupiaq boy anxiously awaits his father's return from a whaling trip, gazing out at the fat flakes his Aaka (grandmother) calls "whale snow" - the snow that "comes when a whale has given itself to the People." Joining in the communal celebration that follows - the hugging and crying, gathering and feasting - Amiqqaq discovers aġvaktuni quiviasuun, the "whale happiness" that comes from the spirit-of-the-whale's sacrifice. But where, Amiqqaq asks his Aapa (grandfather), does the spirit-of-the-whale go after the feast...?

A lovely picture-book, which combines a warm family tale with luminous watercolor illustrations, Whale Snow offers a sensitive, and culturally accurate, portrait of the Iñupiat people's physical and spiritual relationship with the bowhead whale. A glossary of Iñupiaq terms, and a brief afterword, provide additional information for the young reader.

As someone who supports the subsistence hunting and fishing rights of the indigenous peoples of North America, but who also has some serious problems with whaling, I am grateful to Debby Dahl Edwardson for this book, which really clarifies the central role of the bowhead whale in Iñupiat culture. Although not Iñupiaq herself, Edwardson raised seven half-Iñupiaq children in Barrow, Alaska, and really seems to understand her subject. Annie Patterson, also a resident of Barrow, captures the serene coldness of the Arctic landscape, as well as the warmth of its people, in her gorgeous art. All in all, a beautiful and enlightening book - one I would imagine would be particularly useful for teachers and librarians doing units on the indigenous peoples of the far north. ( )

Beautiful tale of the relationship of the Inupiat people and the whale. ( )

beautiful pictures, showing the people in a small Alaskan village, and how the people celebrated and were thankful, experiencing "whale happiness" as a whale "gives itself" to the village. After the celebrating and feasting is over, the whale's spirit returns to the sea, leaving its happiness behind.