Intermediate (ages 9-14)

Material appropriate for intermediate age groups

Two Old Women

Based on an Athabascan Indian legend passed along for many generations from mothers to daughters of the upper Yukon River area in Alaska, this is the suspenseful, shocking, ultimately inspirational tale of two old women abandoned by their tribe during a brutal winter famine. Though these two women have been known to complain more than contribute, they now must either survive on their own or die trying. In simple but vivid detail, Velma Wallis depicts a landscape and way of life that are at once merciless and starkly beautiful. In her old women, she has created two heroines of steely determination whose story of betrayal, friendship,community, and forgiveness will carve out a permanent place in readers’ imaginations.

As Long As The Rivers Flow

Starting in the 1800s and continuing into the 20th century, First Nations children were forcibly taken to government-sponsored residential schools to erase their traditional languages and cultures. This moving book tells of one such child, author Larry Loyie, and his last summer with his Cree tribe. It is a time of learning and adventure. He cares for an abandoned baby owl, watches his grandmother make winter moccasins, and sees her kill a huge grizzly with one shot. The sensitive text and Heather Holmlund’s expressive illustrations beautifully capture the joy and drama of a First Nations family’s last summer together.

Black Star, Bright Dawn

In this redesigned edition of Scott O’Dell’s classic novel, a young Eskimo girl encounters frightening obstacles when she takes her father’s place in the Iditarod, the annual 1,172-mile dogsled race in Alaska.

Spirit of the White Bison

A young bison growing up on the plains in the late 1800s faces peril at the hands of soldiers, who are destroying the great buffalo herds as a way to control native tribes. He is befriended by a native warrior and a white hunter who try to save him and his herd from annihilation.

Ghost Of Spirit Bear

Alone in the wilderness, Cole found peace.

But he’s not alone anymore.

Cole Matthews used to be a violent kid, but a year in exile on a remote Alaskan island has a way of changing your perspective. After being mauled by a Spirit Bear, Cole started to heal. He even invited his victim, Peter Driscal, to join him on the island and they became friends.

But now their time in exile is over, and Cole and Peter are heading back to the one place they’re not sure they can handle: high school. Gangs and violence haunt the hallways, and Peter’s limp and speech impediment make him a natural target. In a school where hate and tension are getting close to the boiling point, the monster of rage hibernating inside Cole begins to stir.

Ben Mikaelsen’s riveting saga of survival and self-awareness continues in the sequel to his gripping Touching Spirit Bear. This time, he weaves a tale of urban survival where every day is a struggle to stay sane. As the problems in his school grow worse, Cole realizes that it’s not enough just to change himself. He has to change his world.

Winter Camp

Two orphaned siblings struggle to survive a harsh Alaskan winter looking after a badly wounded miner, while their guardian, an old Athabascan Indian who has taught them the ways of their ancestors, searches for help.

People of the Noatak

During five long visits to Alaska’s remote northwest coast to sketch and paint, the late Claire Fejes became guest and friend to the Native inhabitants there, learning their ways and customs. A personal narrative in text, drawings, and paintings, People of the Notatak concerns the people of two villages–Noatak, the summer settlement of a nomadic tribe that lives mainly in the wilderness interior, and Point Hope, whose economy centers around the hunting of the great bowhead whale.

Claire captures the life of the Native Inupiat in Northwest Alaska, before outside influences changed their lives. In a few simple strokes, her drawings evoke the heart and life of the Inupiat. Thanks in part to her habit of journal-keeping, Claire was able to record what she had witnessed in her years of travel and painting up the Yukon River into the Arctic Refuge.

A native New Yorker, Claire received her art training at the Newark Art Museum and taught art until moving to Alaska. She wrote with rare insight and understanding about the intimate daily lives of mothers and fathers and their children, of husbands and wives and in-laws in the villages in which she lived, an aspect of Eskimo life rarely treated in books.

Originally published in 1966, People of the Noatak is an excellent portrayal of the Inupiat people before modern changes, a glimpse into the Inupiat world when traditional values and roots were strong.