Julie of the Wolves

Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George

I am coming upon the end of my time spent working in a middle school and as such, this is the last book I have read along with my sixth grade students. While some parts were pretty slow, others made up for it. The funny thing is that my sister saw me reading this book, remembered it from when she read it way back when and then proceeded to tell me the exact page number of a “dirty” scene. Interesting.

Known as Julie to the English-speakers and Miyax to the Eskimo, Julie lives in Alaska where the sun shone for months and then remained dark until the sun returned and brought life back. Her father is a skilled Eskimo hunter, but when he disappears while hunting, Julie must live with her conservative aunt that scolded Julie for speaking English and cutting her hair short. In an attempt to escape her aunt, Julie consented to an earlier pre-arranged marriage set up by her father. At the age of 13, Julie was married to a total stranger, lived with a whole new family, went to a whole new school and started to exchange letters with a pen pal in San Francisco. When her new “married” life became intolerable (see page 101, thanks sister), Julie decided to run away and take up her pen pal’s constant offers of going down to San Fran. Yet, running away was not as simple as she thought. Julie became lost on the tundra of the Arctic Circle and tried to survive with what Eskimo traditions her father had taught her from before. Just as she is about to starve, Julie takes a risk with a nearby wolf pack that eventually adopts her as their own. Julie is saved and becomes one of the tribe, with Nails, Silver, Sister, Zit, Zat, Zing, the friendly pup Kapu, the bold leader Amaroq, and the lone wolf who is constantly suspicious and never trusting of the new human Jello. Amaroq takes care of Julie after she learns the ways of the wolf and how to communicate properly. Living for months, lost on the tundra, Julie returns to the Eskimo ways of her ancestors, living with nature and accepting the name Miyax. Miyax appreciates her new way of life with the wolves, but when Miyax finds her way back to civilization during the hunting season, she must try to protect her new wolf friends from the bounty out on wolves for hunters.

I am very happy with the way the narrative of this novel was set up. It is split into three parts. During part one, Miyax is already lost on the tundra and must figure out a way to survive and learn how to get the wolves to accept her and offer her help before she starves. The sections on the tundra are pretty dry for the most part. Part two, though, goes back in time during Julie’s childhood to learn why Julie had run away and found herself in such a position. Part three has Miyax working with the wolves, but trying to find a new balance between old and new world traditions as she comes back to civilization. The tundra parts may have been slow but they were thankfully broken up in the middle. The ending to this novel is bittersweet, but I will admit that it was also confusing. On the last two pages, Miyax changes her mind for what seems to be 15 times and then finally she makes up her mind during the last sentence and I still have not yet decided if I like it. I say bittersweet because I like the ending and hate it at the same time. Or maybe I just hate the situation because of the characters involved and the conflict between a dying older way of life being put aside for a newer modern one.

This book has some very dry parts and the tundra scenes seem to last forever. I would not recommend this book for anyone who gets bored easily or has trouble paying attention when things get repetitive. However, do not let that stop you. I think this book has some great things to say and some actually stunning scenes that are both exciting and moving. And how bad can this book really be if it won the Newberry Medal? Enough said; read it.

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