Arctic Stories

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

This trilogy of stories is built around a young Inuit girl named Agatha
who lives in the isolated community of Repulse Bay, Northwest
Territories, during the middle part of the 20th century. Even though she
is only 10, Agatha lives a full life. She single-handedly drives away a
huge flying monster that appears over her village one summer day. Agatha
also learns to appreciate ravens, even though she thinks they are the
ugliest birds she has ever seen. Her most poignant adventure occurs when
she is separated from her loving parents and forced by the Canadian
government to attend a mission school hundreds of kilometres away.

Based on the real-life experiences of Inuit author Michael Arvaarluk
Kusugak, Agatha’s stories breathe with the hundreds of small, golden
moments of life in the high arctic—moments that include the cozy
embrace of a warm sleeping bag, the thrill of exploring the summer
tundra with young eyes, and the loneliness of attending Mission School.
Although Kusugak’s tales are rife with humor, a recurring theme is
Agatha’s struggle not to think bad thoughts—a traditional Inuit way
of getting through tragedy and hard times.

Kusugak’s prose is perfectly matched by the shimmering illustrations.
Vladyana Langer Krykorka has created such detail-laden scenes as
narwhals cruising a frozen bay while a kerosene lamp lights up a canvas
tent like a Chinese lantern to show Agatha’s father cranking an
old-fashioned gramophone. Highly recommended.