|
 |
Ice Drift Theodore Taylor Harcourt Books © 2005 |
Alika and Sulu were
hunting for seals along with their sled dogs. Jamka
is the lead dog. When they were getting ready to leave the ice they were on
broke and created a floe. Alika and Sulu let their dogs swim to shore except for Jamka who stayed with them. The other dogs swam to shore and went back to their house. Alika and
Sulu's mother and father knew immediately that their sons were on a floe with
Jamka. Their mother Maja wanted to go look for them in a kayak, and they
did, but they had no luck. Meanwhile Alika and Jamka built an igloo as a shelter. The
next day they
went out to hunt but did not have much luck. They built a larger igloo the
next day and used the smaller one for storage.
Maja told the shaman to conduct a search party for her sons
but they also had no luck. The shaman said there was nothing else he could do because
the dark days were approaching rapidly. During the dark days where they used the moon for their main
source of
light and hunted during the night, Sulu became sick. He had a horribly high
fever to which Alika did not know what to do to bring the fever down. Alika went
out on his own and hunted for seal. After he caught one he brought it back to
the igloo to prepare to eat. A couple of days later Sulu was no longer ill, but
he still had to stay inside. The dark days were nearing an end when Maja decided to go and
look for
her sons herself. She traveled alone because her husband had a broken leg. After reaching the second village she realized that there was no hope left. She went back to her village and was horrified with herself because she gave up. Her sons on the other hand kept hunting but never had much
luck. On the
day that the floe was breaking apart a group of hunters were passing on kayaks
and brought Alika, Sulu, and Jamka to their village. they stayed there for about
tree weeks before they left on a ship to go back to their village, after
six months.
I really enjoyed the book and thought it would be a really
good
inspiration for middle school students.
~ Ashley Aldan, grade 6, Boardman Center Middle School