My name is not easy

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My name is not easy

Title:

My name is not easy

Author:

Edwardson, Debby Dahl, author.

Ferrari, Alex, book designer.

Kroupa, Melanie, editor.

Marshall Cavendish Corporation.

Summary:

Alaskans, Luke, Chickie, Sonny, Donna, and Amiq relate their experiences in the early 1960s when they are forced to attend a Catholic boarding school where, despite different tribal affiliations, they come to find a sort of family and home.

Audience:

Ages 12 up.

General Note:

"Book design by Alex Ferrari ; Editor: Melanie Kroupa"--Title page verso.

Edition:

1st ed.

Contents:

pt. I: The day the earth turned over (1960-1961) : My name is not easy / Luke ; Looking for a tree / Chickie ; Never cry / Luke ; Indian country / Sonny and Chickie ; How hunters survive / Luke ; Snowbird / Chickie ; Kickball / Sonny ; The size of things back home / Luke, Sonny & Chickie -- pt. II: The day the soldiers came (1961-1962) : Rose hips and chamomile / Donna ; Burnt offerings / Luke ; Military trash / Chickie ; The day the soldiers came / Luke ; The meanest heathens / Sonny and Amiq -- pt. III: When the time comes (1962-1963) : Coupons and bomb shelters / Chickie ; Our uncle's gun / Luke ; Eskimo kiss / Chickie ; Forever / Luke -- pt. IV: The earth can't shake us (1963-1964) : He's my brother / Chickie ; Eskimo rodeo / Luke ; Unchained Melody / Donna ; A weak spot or a secret strength / Luke ; Our story ; Civil disobedience ; Good Friday -- A new gun / Luke.

Physical Description:

248 pages ; 22 cm

Genre:

Historical fiction.

Subject Term:

Indians of North America -- Fiction.

Indian teenagers -- Fiction.

Inupiat -- Fiction.

Indians, Treatment of -- Fiction.

Interpersonal relations -- Fiction.

Catholic schools -- Fiction.

Off-reservation boarding schools -- Fiction.

Schools -- Fiction.

Students -- Fiction.

Teachers -- Fiction.

Storytelling -- Fiction.

Friendship -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Alaska -- History -- 1959- -- Fiction.

Author(s):

Ferrari, Alex,

Kroupa, Melanie,

Added Corporate Author:

Marshall Cavendish Corporation.

Publisher:

Marshall Cavendish,

Publication Date:

2011

ISBN:

9780761459804

9780761460916

Publication Information:

Award Note:

National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature, 2011.

Notable Book for a Global Society award winner 2012

Call Number:

YA EDWARDSON

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003518811	Young Adult	EDWARDSON	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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On Order

Summary

Luke knows his I´nupiaq name is full of sounds white people can't say. He knows he'll have to leave it behind when he and his brothers are sent to boarding school hundreds of miles from their Arctic village.

At Sacred Heart School things are different. Instead of family, there are students--Eskimo, Indian, White--who line up on different sides of the cafeteria like there's some kind of war going on. And instead of comforting words like tutu and maktak , there's English. Speaking I´nupiaq--or any native language--is forbidden. And Father Mullen, whose fury is like a force of nature, is ready to slap down those who disobey.

Luke struggles to survive at Sacred Heart. But he's not the only one. There's smart-aleck Amiq, a daring leader--if he doesn't self destruct; Chickie, blond and freckled, a different kind of outsider; and small quiet Junior, noticing everything and writing it all down. Each has their own story to tell. But once their separate stories come together, things at Sacred Heart School--and in the wider world--will never be the same.

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 7 Up-Perseverance is at the center of this novel that highlights commitment to place and family and reveals a government program through which Alaska Natives were injected with radioactive iodine. Based on the experiences of the author's husband, this is the story of an Inupiaq man who attended Catholic boarding school as a youth. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Edwardson (Blessing's Bead) crafts a multilayered story set in 1960s Alaska, told from the perspectives of children coming of age in a cultural contact zone. When 12-year-old Luke and his brothers are sent to a punitive Catholic boarding school, he knows that he will have to sacrifice his Inupiaq name. But he isn't prepared to lose his youngest brother, Isaac, who is too young to enroll and is sent to live with a family in Texas. At Sacred Heart, Eskimos, Indians, and whites initially segregate themselves by ethnicity, but as they are touched by insidious outside forces, the racial boundaries fall away, and their voices become unified. Amiq, a defiant Eskimo, challenges authority, and a stubborn girl named Chickie longs to open closed doors, finding love with an Eskimo student; meanwhile, a quiet boy gathers the courage to write the truth. Edwardson distills a complex period in American history, examining the Cold War, the moon race, and the Kennedy era with cold, crisp illumination. Her beautifully styled prose offers strong descriptions of an isolated world and a mosaic of identities that must be sutured back together after being broken off at the root. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.