A poignant, engaging, and illuminating tribute to a vanishing breed.
A dissertation on an extraordinary aboriginal working dog that enabled humans to explore Earth’s polar regions.
Ottawa, Ontario–based librarian Han was introduced to Canadian Inuit dogs by her late daughter, Siu-Ling Han, who lived on Baffin Island, part of Canada’s Arctic archipelago. Siu-Ling bred and raised her dogs according to Inuit traditions and led her hearty sled teams on treks through hundreds of miles along the Arctic tundra. The author began this debut volume as a course assignment at the Institute for Children’s Literature, and it resulted in a full-length, in-depth compendium that explores the importance of this unique dog to traditional Inuit culture. In Inuktitut, the Inuit language, the word for dog is “qimmiq,” and dogs have a special status that’s separate from the rest of the animal kingdom. Aboriginal dogs are domesticated, but they’ve “never been developed by any planned genetic manipulation,” according to an academic paper by Vladimir Beregovoy that Han quotes. The dogs and the ancestors of the Inuit people shared a seminomadic lifestyle for at least 1,000 years; however, the second half of the 20th century brought disease, societal changes, and snowmobiles, which posed challenges to the animals’ survival. For example, cultural misunderstandings resulted in the deaths of thousands of Inuit dogs over multiple decades; wandering canines were killed by officials who saw them as threats to the public. In this book, Han relies heavy on meticulously sourced, secondary research, which is truly comprehensive. However, the use of in-text references sometimes interrupts the flow of the narrative. Similarly, the author’s extensive discussion of scientific nomenclature for various dog breeds is unlikely to interest many casual readers. Serious dog enthusiasts, however, will find that there’s a wealth of information to be found, including a detailed breakdown of external and internal physiological features that distinguish Inuit dogs and enable them to thrive in Arctic environments. Han’s interviews with Inuit elders are especially captivating, as are the many full-color photos that she includes of the dogs and their surroundings.
A poignant, engaging, and illuminating tribute to a vanishing breed.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-943824-42-7
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Revodana Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The memoir of George Dawson, who learned to read when he was 98, places his life in the context of the entire 20th century in this inspiring, yet ultimately blighted, biography. Dawson begins his story with an emotional bang: his account of witnessing the lynching of a young African-American man falsely accused of rape. America’s racial caste system and his illiteracy emerge as the two biggest obstacles in Dawson’s life, but a full view of the man overcoming the obstacles remains oddly hidden. Travels to Ohio, Canada, and Mexico reveal little beyond Dawson’s restlessness, since nothing much happens to him during these wanderings. Similarly, the diverse activities he finds himself engaging in—bootlegging in St. Louis, breaking horses, attending cockfights—never really advance the reader’s understanding of the man. He calls himself a “ladies’ man” and hints at a score of exciting stories, but then describes only his decorous marriage. Despite the personal nature of this memoir, Dawson remains a strangely aloof figure, never quite inviting the reader to enter his world. In contrast to Dawson’s diffidence, however, Glaubman’s overbearing presence, as he repeatedly parades himself out to converse with Dawson, stifles any momentum the memoir might develop. Almost every chapter begins with Glaubman presenting Dawson with a newspaper clipping or historical fact and asking him to comment on it, despite the fact that Dawson often does not remember or never knew about the event in question. Exasperated readers may wonder whether Dawson’s life and his accomplishments, his passion for learning despite daunting obstacles, is the tale at hand, or whether the real issue is his recollections of Archduke Ferdinand. Dawson’s achievements are impressive and potentially exalting, but the gee-whiz nature of the tale degrades it to the status of yet another bowl of chicken soup for the soul, with a narrative frame as clunky as an old bone.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-375-50396-X
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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