Provides a brief history of the Inuit people and discusses their customs as a background for understanding their sculpture, drawing, and printmaking.

Duane the polar bear and the other animals of the very, very far north find their friendships deepening as they are challenged by the arrival of a contentious weasel and an unexpected departure.

The Manuela Dias book design and Illustration Awards - General illustrations category Alexander Kennedy Ishister Award for Non-Fiction Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award This is a truly unique book. It offers an incomparable glimpse into the experiences and history of more than one hundred First Nations and Métis elders from Canada's North —“the last generation born on the land.” These stunning graphite pencil portraits are rendered with love, respect, and painstaking detail, along with gripping intimate profiles assembled from oral accounts and anecdotes. Their poignant facial features, lines, and creases, weathered by the harsh outdoors and a lifetime of challenges, are like badges of their remarkable achievements, sustained resolve, inspired patience, and deep-set defiance to the hardships their people have endured for generations. The masterful realism of Kuehl’s work helps uncover the tales of these seasoned individuals—their many triumphs and trials—revealing in turn a greater portrait of life in the communities of Northern Canada, a compelling homage, and an enduring historical legacy.

Presents evidence of early Norse settlement in Greenland and North America • Explores in depth how Greenland and its surroundings were inhabited for nearly 5 centuries by two Nordic colonies, Vestri-bygd and Eystri-bygd • Shares extensive evidence from the still-living indigenous oral tradition of the Far North as well as surviving sculptural art to show how the Vikings and the Inuit formed a harmonious community • Examines ancient maps and other cartography, such as the 15th-century Martin Behaim globe, as well as explorers’ records of their voyages Sharing his extensive and meticulous research, Jacques Privat reveals that the Vikings were in Greenland, its neighboring islands, and the eastern shores of Canada long before Columbus. He examines in depth how Greenland and its surroundings were inhabited for nearly five centuries by two Nordic colonies, Vestribygð and Eystribygð, which disappeared mysteriously: one in 1342 and the other in the 16th century. Drawing on the still-living indigenous oral tradition of the Far North, as well as surviving sculptural art carvings, he shows how, far from being constantly at odds with the native population, the Norsemen and the Inuit formed a harmonious community. He reveals how this friendly Inuit-Viking relationship encouraged the Scandinavian settlers to forsake Christianity and return to their pagan roots. Working with ancient European maps and other cartography, such as the 15th-century Martin Behaim globe, as well as explorers’ records of their voyages, the author examines the English, Irish, German, Danish, Flemish, and Portuguese presence in the Far North. He explores how Portugal dominated many seas and produced the first correct cartography of Greenland as an island. He also reveals how Portugal may have been behind the disappearance of the Vikings in Greenland by enslaving them for their European plantations. Dispelling once and for all the theories that the Inuit were responsible for the failure of the Scandinavian colonies of the Far North, the author reveals how, ultimately, the Church opted to cut all ties with the settlements—rather than publicize that a formerly Christian people had become pagan again. When the lands of the Far North were officially “discovered” after the Middle Ages, the Norse colonies had vanished, leaving behind only legends and mysterious ruins.

Far North is a 2009 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction. My father had an expression for a thing that turned out bad. He'd say it had gone west. But going west always sounded pretty good to me. After all, westwards is the path of the sun. And through as much history as I know of, people have moved west to settle and find freedom. But our world had gone north, truly gone north, and just how far north I was beginning to learn. Out on the frontier of a failed state, Makepeace—sheriff and perhaps last citizen—patrols a city's ruins, salvaging books but keeping the guns in good repair. Into this cold land comes shocking evidence that life might be flourishing elsewhere: a refugee emerges from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to reconnect with human society and take to the road, armed with rough humor and an unlikely ration of optimism. What Makepeace finds is a world unraveling: stockaded villages enforcing an uncertain justice and hidden work camps laboring to harness the little-understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeace's journey—rife with danger—also leads to an unexpected redemption. Far North takes the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanity's origins to its possible end. Haunting, spare, yet stubbornly hopeful, the novel is suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the world's fragility and beauty, and its ability to recover from our worst trespasses.

From the window of the small floatplane, fifteen-year-old Gabe Rogers is getting his first look at Canada's magnificent Northwest Territories with Raymond Providence, his roommate from boarding school. Below is the spectacular Nahanni River -- wall-to-wall whitewater racing between sheer cliffs and plunging over Virginia Falls. The pilot sets the plane down on the lake-like surface of the upper river for a closer look at the thundering falls. Suddenly the engine quits. The only sound is a dull roar downstream, as the Cessna drifts helplessly toward the falls . . . With the brutal subarctic winter fast approaching, Gabe and Raymond soon find themselves stranded in Deadmen Valley. Trapped in a frozen world of moose, wolves, and bears, two boys from vastly different cultures come to depend on each other for their very survival.

At the edge of a great frozen river, Kumak and his family lived in their house by the willows. Though their house was warm and cozy, Kumak was not happy. His wife was not happy. His sons and daughters were not happy. His wife's mother was not happy. Too small, this house, said Kumak. I will go to see Aana Lulu. She will know what to do. Set in an Inupiat Eskimo village in the northwest Arctic, KUMAK'S HOUSE is a folktale that conveys a humorous lesson on life with Kumak as the foil. As Kumak treks again and again to elder Aana Lulu for advice, the book's charming illustrations incite laughter and introduce children to traditional Inupiat activities and animals of the Arctic.