Banned Books Review #19
Written by Poison_Ivy.
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George is about a 13-year-old Eskimo girl running away from home to escape the husband from an arranged marriage. This book has been banned in many school libraries because Miyax was almost raped by her husband. This incident in the book covers an entire sentence. The rest of the book tells the story of Miyax living in the wilderness. She amazingly learns the language of a wolf pack and joins them as they aid her in survival. She learns to rely entirely on the land, building her own shelter, hunting her own food, and recognizing the language of the animals to sense where there is danger. She uses the world around her as a compass leading her to the ocean, where she plans to take a boat to San Francisco to live with her pen pal, Amy.
While traveling toward the shoreline, Miyax (her American name is Julie while her Eskimo name is Miyax) comes to realize that her father, Kapugen, is alive. Her aunt had told Miyax that her father had died. Kapugen had become remarried and was living an Americanized life. Realizing her father has abandoned the ways of the Eskimo; Miyax once again sings a song she has created thanking the leader of the wolf pack for training her to survive in the wilderness of Alaska. Upon singing her thanks to Amaroq, she turns her boots to leave her father’s home.
The book ends leaving the reader with many questions about what will become of Miyax. Fortunately, sequels to the book that will continue the story exist. I think the attention given in the book to Miyax’s attempted rape is much too little to justify banning the book. The book shows the strength of a little girl and her will to live. Surviving in the wild of Alaska would not be an easy feat for anyone, let alone a child, but her smallness helped her to establish a relationship with the wolf pack, which led to her survival. I would give this book three out of five stars, simply because the book moved rather slowly and would get quite boring in some parts.
Julie of the Wolves
