I was really excited to receive this book especially when I found out what it was about. I found out that it was originally commissioned as a play for the National Theatre. I would love to have seen it.
The cover is stunning, as are Chris Riddle’s amazingly beautiful drawings and they really capture the isolation and magical qualities of the island so I couldn’t wait to begin reading. Cameron spends a holiday with his scientist mother filming on an uninhabited Arctic Island that is being changed by global warming to such an extent that it might disappear. He is a typical teenage boy, hardly able to function without modern technology. His mother, though very focused on her research seems to not to know much about be rather cultural history of the place. Cameron meets an Inuit girl, Inuluk, who is constantly in contact with her grandmother, Atka,and a large white bear. The story explores the differences between the factual research based scientific explanation of the island and the historical and cultural things that challenge the research.
It took me almost a hundred pages before I felt compelled to carry on reading the book. Although some of the Inuit words that are used are explained at the beginning of the chapter in which they were introduced others weren’t and it is such an unfamiliar language that I had to stop occasionally to workout the meaning. I became really gripped when Cameron decides to investigate the Inuit graves. Through Inuluk Cameron learned more than any scientific research could have told him. The end of the book is really moving and I think that I will read it again and again and I will certainly recommend it to all my friends.
I found out that a publisher had been reluctant to accept this book because it was about environmental issues. I think that is ridiculous. My generation is very interested in the environment! They should look at the number of schools that now have the green flag which is not easy to get.
- Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
