Between Two Worlds by Katherine Kirkpatrick- - OPTIONAL

Kirkpatrick, Katherine Between Two Worlds, 285 pgs. Random House Children’s Books, 2014. $16.99.

Language: G; Violence: PG (Hunting and Frostbite injuries) Mature Content: PG13

HS - - OPTIONAL  

16yo Inuit girl Billy-Bah spent a year as a child living in Washington D.C. with the family of Lt. Peary, has returned home, is married, and has only vague memories of America.  Her parents were taken to America but contracted illnesses and died there.  Now, with Peary living in the north full time, supply ships come and go, and this one carries his wife and daughter.  Billy-Bah’s husband trades her “favors” with the sailors for supplies like wood, guns and bullets, but when she falls in love with Duncan, her world turns upside down.  

Based on historical characters, this story about the effects on the Inuit culture because of the contact with the outside world feels like a much more mature Julie of the Wolves.  The sex is all off-page and isn’t graphic but the subject matter keeps this one out of the middle school library.  

Lisa Librarian