![]() ![]() *Always obey the rules for women so as not to spoil a husband's luck in hunting. *Sew beautiful clothes (to be praised by the husband in front of other men, for this was an honor) *Eat little, save the best for family, never eat alone *Take food to the men in their house and wait to take away the dishes ![]() Minuk of the Yup'ik group of Inuits in Alaska in the 1890's tells us right away some of things a girl must know to become a "good" woman: Once I got about halfway into it and used to the author's style, I enjoyed it as well. I think a lot of girls can and will benefit from reading this book, even if it does read somewhat awkwardly. That said, Minuk is a good protagonist for girls to read about, and is bright, spunky, and inquisitive. The missionaries and Minuk's life takes a backseat, it seems, to explaining what it means to be a Yi'puk eskimo, and while I understand that it's historical fiction, I think there would have been a fluent way to transition between the historical information and the story itself. ![]() While the plot had a good deal of potiental in terms of interesting young readers, it reads awkwardly at points and the plot is often broken by long passages of background information. Minuk is a hard-working girl learning what it is to become a woman in Yi'puk Alaska whose life is shaken up when Christian missionaries come to "civilize" her village. In reading Minuk for a class on YA literature, I have to say that I was interested in but not in love with this particular story. ![]()
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