How to use this Page

Neil Christopher, illustrated by Eva Widermann,
Arctic Giants
Inhabit Media, 2010.

Ages: 12+

Arctic Giants is part anthropology, folklore, and story-telling.  It tells of mythical beings – races of giants – long present in the Inuit world.  Drawing from research in archives, explorer accounts, and interviews with elders, author Neil Christopher has assembled a comprehensive array of stories and accounts of various kinds of giants that inhabit the Arctic regions.  The giants can generally be divided into two groups – the lesser giants and the greater giants.  The greater giants, known as Inukpasugjuit, are of massive scale in size and strength.  Giants of this size fish for whales like catfish, affect the weather, and can alter the landscape with their girth and might.  The lesser giants – the Inugaruligasugjuit – are considerably smaller in size but are still larger and mightier than humans. They are sometimes cannibalistic and prey on humans.

Arctic Giants is divided into two main sections covering stories of the lesser giants and the greater giants.  These fantastical and magical beings are illustrated in comic-book style by Eva Widermann.  She does excellent renderings of the giants in the Arctic landscape, wearing typical Inuit clothing such as the amauti (the traditional cape) and parkas made of animal skins.  It’s always fun to find the little human in some of the illustrations, either perched on a giant’s shoulder or sitting on his palm, or hiding behind a boulder.  Since some of these giants are cannibals, they are often terrifyingly depicted with human skull necklaces and pupil-less eyes, or as one grisly illustration would have it, feasting on human limbs.  So, a warning:  this is not a book for the faint-hearted!  I’m sure there’s much ink to be spilled on the psychological and spiritual implications of these beings who live side-by-side with humans in the largely inhospitable and severe terrain of the Arctic, but this book’s purpose is to introduce to the reader a certain pantheon of super-beings that have existed in the Inuit imagination for centuries.  For anyone interested in Inuit folklore and ethnography, Arctic Giants makes for an informative and entertaining study.  And for lovers of comic book heroes and villains, this is a new go-to book for inspiration!

Sally Ito
May 2012

In our current issue of PaperTigers, which focuses on Canadian Aboriginal Children’s Literature, we feature the reprint of an article by Nadine C. Fabbi, Associate Director of the Canadian Studies Center in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, in which she has put together a set of picture books to introduce children to Inuit culture and Northern/Nunavut history:

Elementary school teachers and librarians can successfully introduce children to Inuit culture and Northern/Nunavut history by having them read the ten selected books in this article and then enhancing these stories with additional curriculum and lesson plans. Children’s literature from the North is relatively recent with all but one of the suggested books being published in the 1990s or since 2000. All of the books are excellent in terms of quality (several are awards winners) and engaging for the young reader with beautiful illustrations. Each book also serves as an introduction to Inuit mythology, the history of the Northwest Passage and missionary schools, the importance of the inukshuk, and the vital place of the polar bear in Inuit culture. The entire “selection” makes for an excellent library of the Canadian North for children.

You can read the whole article here. The set includes our current selection for The Tiger’s Bookshelf, Arctic Stories by Michael Kusugak and illustrated by Vladyana Langer Krykorka (Annick, 1998); and I was particularly struck by what Nadine writes about the importance of the polar bear in Inuit culture:

Another key part of Inuit life is the role of the polar bear both for survival and in terms of the special attributes given to the animal. Children love to learn about animals and the polar bear is one of the most interesting animals, since it is unique to Northern cultures, to study. Polar bears are the largest of all bears – males can weigh up to 1,600 pounds – but cubs only weigh 1 to 2 pounds or less than that of a human baby. Teaching about the polar bear is also a good way to introduce children to the effects of global warming. The polar bear is one of the most threatened of all species today due to the sensitive northern environment and the melting of the ice floes. Today’s polar bears are a full 15% lighter in weight than they were 20 years ago. There are two beautifully written books that give a wonderful sense of the importance of the polar bear to the Inuit people: The Polar Bear Son: An Inuit Tale (Sandpiper, 1997) by Lydia Dabcovich and The Polar Bear’s Gift (Red Deer Press, 2000) by Jeanne Bushey.

In The Polar Bear Son an elderly Inuk woman finds and raises a polar bear cub who becomes a close companion. When the bear matures he hunts and brings her food but it doesn’t take long for the men of the village to take a hunter’s interest in the bear. To protect her “son,” the woman chases the bear away but every so often will stand on the edge of the village and clap for him to come back and visit her. This is an incredibly touching story, retold from a popular oral tale, and beautifully illustrated by the author. It tells of the sensitive relationship between animal

0 Comments on Nadine C. Fabbi on picture books to introduce “the North, the Inuit and Nunavut” as of 1/1/1900

Add a Comment