Martha Stackhouse

The book, The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish, is based on a true story. The author, Jaqueline Briggs Martin, had researched the expedition and decided to put it into a children's book so that it can be used as a history lesson. She had it verified by Emily Wilson, the daughter of the toddler, Makpii, in the book. Emily is an Inupiaq instructor for the University of Alaska, Fairbanks so the Inupiaq words and all the names in the book were spelled correctly. She lives in Mt. Vernon, Iowa.

The illustrator, Beth Krommes, lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. She did a pretty good job of illustrating the book. I especially liked the first page of the underground sod house and all of the skins and fish drying, sled, meat cache up on top of the house. The house has a long entry way with a lot of hunting gear hanging.

The expedition took place in 1913 when commercial whaling had come to an end. The Canadian Arctic Expedition sponsored this particular trip in order to study the plant life and its Arctic people. Captain Stefansson, the crew, scientists and explorers decided to take an Inupiaq family from Barrow. The father, Kurraluk, and another man, Kataktovik, were to be a hunters for the crew. The mother, Qiruk, was hired to be a seamstress. She had the ability to look at a person and the fur clothing would be just right. She sewed parkas, fur pants and maklaks for the crew members through out the trip.

They set out on their expedition when winter came early in 1913. The ship became locked in with the ice. Captain Stefansson and five crew members left the boat to go hunt caribou. Robert Bartlett became the Captain of the boat. Qiruk continued to sew for the crew. Kurraluk and Kataktovik would occasionally find seals but it was not enough to feed the crew, their 28 dogs and a cat. They spent Christmas and New Year on the ship. Nine days after New Years, the ice cracked and took the ship down with it. They confiscated what they could and built ice houses. Eventually, they decided to walk almost a hundred miles across the sea ice to Wrangell Island off of Siberia. They had to wear goggles to keep from getting snow blind. They had to build snow houses along the way. They encountered ice opening up where they slept, polar bears and near starvation. Finally, they made it to Wrangell Island but they still had meager foods. There were no signs of ships anywhere all summer. Finally in the fall, they saw a ship. They had to go from ice to ice to board it. The ship took them to Nome. The scientists and crew members went home to the south, the Inupiaq family started their long journey back home along the coast to Point Barrow. The book ends here. The Inupiaq family must have made it back safely because I remember seeing Qiruk in the 1950's as a little girl. The toddler, Makpii is still alive and is now the oldest person in Barrow.

I really enjoyed this book, as it talked so positively about the ingenuity of the Inupiaq people. They were able to survive because of the Inupiaq people. I fully recommend that this book remain on the shelves of the schools.

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