Julie

Grade 5-8-George continues the story begun in Newbery-award winning Julie of the Wolves (HarperCollins, 1974) with the young woman's return to her father's home in Kangik, Alaska. As she becomes reaquainted with Kapugen, she tries to accept the fact that he killed her beloved wolf Amaroq. She must also come to terms with her father's abandonment of some traditional Eskimo ways in order to help the local population survive, his new wife (a white woman), and a new romantic interest of her own. Julie is no longer a loner; she, too, learns about being a part of a community, one that is struggling to exist in a difficult and changing environment. But she also vows to protect the surviving wolves and move them to a place where they will not threaten her father's herd of musk-oxen. Although there is purpose (nearing obsession) to Julie's actions, readers must pay attention to the frequent shifts in the location of the wolf pack and the all-important caribou, vital to both the survival of the wolves and the village. As Julie seeks to move the pack leader, Kapu, and the other wolves closer to a food source, readers may sense some resemblance to the scenes of gaining trust in the earlier title and some may question Julie's interference with the natural order of things (an intervention she cannot possibly maintain). Still, the sense of place and of a people is strong throughout. In the end, her father changes his philosophy from needing to kill the wolves to releasing his oxen into the wild, a conclusion that is a bit abrupt but thoroughly satisfying.
Susan Knorr, Milwaukee Public Library, WI
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.