CHILDREN OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN

Brown profiles eight children of Alaska’s indigenous populations in their own environments—ocean, inland, and tundra—at home, school, and play, where they fish, carve totems, ride bikes, and dance at potlatches. Each child represents a distinct community of people, from the northernmost I§upiat to the coastal Tlingit and Haida. A short history of each culture is included along with everyday activities, interests, and traditions. Survival skills are a way of life for many, in sharp contrast to the supermarket societies of the lower 48. Every child is linked to his or her ancestry through grandparents or other elders who pass on the tools, customs, and trades of a vanishing way of life, from catching, cleaning, and drying fish to killing moose and building emergency shelters. Young people also participate in the traditional dances and ceremonies, and more. The book acknowledges the drastic changes of the last few decades, with the advent of satellite television, access to transportation, and the Internet, but focuses on the preservation or reawakening of culture through each child. Full-color photographs contrast images to convey life in a commercial fishing village or in Anchorage’s Town Square, amid the flowering tundra or perched on a seal-strewn beach. (glossary, further reading) (Nonfiction. 7-12)