Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George is the 52nd Newbery. It follows the life of an Inuit (Eskimo) girl named Miyax (Julie is her English name) after the death of her mother, raised by her hunter father before an aunt forces her to leave the desolate hunting camps to live with her in a city and attend school. To escape the aunt, after her father disappears, Julie becomes a child bride of her father’s friend’s son, but when that sours, she sets out to find her pen-pal Amy in San Francisco, but ends up stranded in the eternal summer day of the Alaskan tundra, near a wolf pack, starving to death, needing to become a member of the pack to survive.
What I liked. I love how this book has such a unique and rich setting— Inuit Alaskan culture is amazing in and of itself, but a wolf pack with its hierarchy and modes of communication is just fascinating.
What was interesting. I remembered a lot of details of the book, especially the two main antagonists, Jello, the wolf, and Julie’s child bride husband. I remember thinking Julie was a super amazing, wild mountain woman, but now as an adult, the book is way scarier. Maybe it’s because I live in Milwaukee and people have crazy pit-bulls (and I got bit by my neighbors’ dog, 9 months pregnant, the morning we moved in) but wolves are kind of terrifying. And she really threw herself at the mercy of the wolves, which maybe children are better at than adults would be (Not my child; it’s a big conscious effort to make him comfortable around the easiest-going family dogs.). But Julie is even more amazing to me as an adult.
What were some limitations. I felt like the very end of the book—the last four pages really—were just not very strong. It was an ambiguous enough ending that I’m sure a thousand 7th grade English teachers over the last 45 years have had their students analyze (because it’s so back and forth, and “Literary”). I don’t want to give too many spoilers away about the ending, but I thought it needed to end when Julie finds her father. And all the feelings about him having become assimilated should have been in the sequel. I think that Jean Craighead George sort of agreed with me, because she did write a sequel that picked up exactly there. There was definitely enough for a whole new book, so I think all the ending angst should have been kept for the sequel.
Similarity to other Newbery winners. It is the most similar to Island of the Blue Dolphins, another survivalist story with a strong female protagonist (my husband constantly got those two books mixed up in his head growing up as a young reader), who also has a relationship with a dangerous canine. There are other female coming of age stories like Up A Road Slowly which also has a girl named Julie whose mother dies and must navigate growing up,The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Wrinkle in Time, Miracles on Maple Hill, Caddy Woodlawn, Invincible Louisa, and Strawberry Girl. Outside of the Newberies, it does remind me of My Side of the Mountain (also by Jean Craighead George!) and Hatchet (by Gary Paulsen).
What it teaches me as a writer. I really enjoyed all the technical, scientific details about the wolves. I have done a lot of research on trees, and I’m not always sure how much technical, scientific details to get into about the trees in my own novel because I am worried that I’ll lose the reader. But if anything, that is one of the strongest parts of this story. Jean Craighead George does give Julie the knowledge—remembering it from her father, from his stories, and then through her own deduction. It makes me think about how I can convey naturalist information in my book in a way that as compelling.
Have you read Julie of the Wolves? What are your favorite books wilderness survival books?
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