Book Review by Cate Koskey

The introduction in this book states that it was written by Grace Slwooko, a St. Lawrence Island Yup'ik woman from Gambell, Alaska for use in the high school Native literature class in Gambell. It states that the stories are all traditional Siberian stories that have been passed through oral tradition. Slwooko has written them both in English and St. Lawrence Island Yup'ik, and besides some proofreading, "her stories are presented here very much as she has given them to us." The stories are not direct translations of each other, but they are equivalent. For each story, first the Yup'ik version is written, and then the English version.

The stories in the book are almost all about people dealing with supernatural forces, whether those forces be in animal, human, or other form. Some of the stories seem very dark and mysterious, and some of the stories are a little odd and seem a bit funny. Most of the stories are written without morals being given at the end, but sometimes Slwooko writes explainatory notes that seem like moralizing.

Some of these stories remind me of other Yup'ik stories that I have heard, but mostly they are new to me. The illustrations are very unique and interesting. The characters speak simply, but their dialogue does not seem simple or thoughtless - they seem to speak with wisdom and knowing. For short tales, the characters are developed fairly well, and the motivations for characters to take the actions they take are revealed to us through their emotions and words. The characters, even if at times mysterious, appear to be people who could be real.

Overall, I really like this book. I wonder whether Slwooko received permission to write these stories, as it does not say anywhere what her writing process was like. I feel that the motivations behind writing and publishing this book are respectable, as it is for students to learn more about their traditional tales and practice their native language skills at the same time, all within a western school setting. I used some of these stories when I was teaching in Pilot Station and Hooper Bay, and I gave the students copies of both the native language versions and the English versions, and even though none of them could read the St. Lawrence Island Yup'ik, it still felt like the students were very intrigued by the stories and the plotlines, and it seemed that the students felt a sort of ownership over the stories. I would recommend this book for use in classrooms, with the caution that it should be a part of using them to discuss with the students the issues surrounding collecting and writing down stories, such as gaining permission from people you have heard stories from.

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