Inuit_ArcticStoriesArctic Stories by Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak, illustrated by Vladyana Langer Krykorka • Annick Press, Ltd., 1998. 40 pages.

Agatha lives in Repulse Bay, in Canada’s Arctic Circle. Her tenth year turns out to be pretty eventful: She saves her community from a giant flying object, befriends a bird, and even goes to school, leaving her small community for the larger English-speaking world.

Told with humor and illustrated with whimsical, welcoming pictures, Arctic Stories is a very approachable book. Mining incidents from the author’s own life, the book gets the experience of being a child right; Agatha is sympathetic and believable, and though her circumstances might be outside the experience of many readers, her experiences seem universal and relatable.

Recommended for readers grades 2-4 by the School Library Journal, these stories are simply and evocatively told, with a glossary of Inuit terms and plenty of context clues to help readers figure out unfamiliar words and phrases. Children interested in traditional lifestyles of the Arctic (how do you keep your socks from freezing when you’re sleeping in an igloo?), and readers looking for stories that range from anecdotal to outright heroic will enjoy this book.