Call number
JF PAU
Collection
Genres
Publication
Macmillan Children's Books (2022), Edition: Main Market
Description
When sickness decimates his fishing village, an orphan named Leif flees north in a cedar canoe, journeying along a brutal but beautiful coastline.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Al-G
I really enjoy Paulsen's writing and his stories; and even though I am not the target demographic, I am always able to glean a lesson from him. I didn't realize until I started reading it that this was his last book before he died - a disappointing loss for readers. It is a fitting conclusion to
Mr. Paulsen, you will be missed.
Show More
his legacy, however. With hints of Norse mythology he tells the story of Leif, an orphan who is the sole survivor of a contagion the takes the liives of the people in the small fishing camp where he lives. Old Carl, a mentor, puts him a good sturdy canoe and tells him to head north, always north. Leif sets out on a journey of discovery, about nature, about the ocean, and about himself. With no destination, only a direction, he settles into the journey, learning and growing along the way, filled with wonder even amid diversity. It is a reminder for too many of us who are so focused on the destination, we do not enjoy the wonder of the journe. There is a quote that speaks to me from the book: "It was all up to him. He could eat or starve, depending on his own actions, his own thoughts, his own plans. The same as the whales. Or the ravens. Or any living thing. From whales down to mice. All thinking. All taking care of themselves, by themselves, for themselves." Leif learns from nature as he crosses boundaries again and again between worlds. The other quote I would share really sums up this journey of discovery, it is the realization of our interconnection with one another and with all of creation. Through his journey, Leif finally understands hismself as part of a whole. Not an orphan but a child of the divine, joined to all things: “Now there is no line that separates me from the canoe, from what I have become. The boat is my skin and body and mind and I am the water and wood and the sun and the birds. All one. All together as one. I am part of it now. Part of all of it. I have become.”Mr. Paulsen, you will be missed.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jennybeast
To be honest, I really don't know what to make of this book.
On the one hand -- did I enjoy reading it? Yes, very much. It's got the survival feel of Hatchet combined with a truly magical love of being on the water that shines through. It's also extraordinarily meditative and keeps that core
On the other hand -- what is even happening here? I can't orient in space and time. It is so clearly and completely set on the Pacific Northwest coast -- from the cedar canoe, to the Orcas, to the small islands in channels and fjords further north, to the distinct black and grizzly bears and the ravens and salmon and the blackberries. Yet the character experiencing all of this is a former thrall on Viking ship, steeped in Nordic mythology. The timeframe wanders between early Viking/ Exploration of the Americas to some kind of whaling venture that comes across as 19th century. And I have to say, I just can't make it make sense.
Is the Norwegian coast/climate/fauna so similar to the Pacific Northwest? Is there any evidence of Vikings on the West Coast? Were there thralls in the time of large wooden ships? Ships that were big enough to carry smaller ships? Were there early Whaling vessels in the Viking era? Did they do a lot of Arctic exploration in the Bering Sea?
And even more troubling, where are the people? If this is a historical novel set in the Pacific Northwest, then the entire thriving Indigenous population that should have been up and down the coast is nowhere to be found. If this is set in Norway, why are there no settlements at all? The Vikings went a-Viking because their population exceeded their space. Aside from the fish camp and the ships, there is no mention of humans or their structures.
It says something about me that I just can't sit back and enjoy the book when the history is so unclear, but there it is. And truly, I know very little about Norway, so perhaps this does have a Norwegian setting. I'm extremely interested to hear what other people think about this.
Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.
On the one hand -- did I enjoy reading it? Yes, very much. It's got the survival feel of Hatchet combined with a truly magical love of being on the water that shines through. It's also extraordinarily meditative and keeps that core
Show More
acknowledgement of oneness with nature that is distinct to Paulsens's writing. It's a great book. On the other hand -- what is even happening here? I can't orient in space and time. It is so clearly and completely set on the Pacific Northwest coast -- from the cedar canoe, to the Orcas, to the small islands in channels and fjords further north, to the distinct black and grizzly bears and the ravens and salmon and the blackberries. Yet the character experiencing all of this is a former thrall on Viking ship, steeped in Nordic mythology. The timeframe wanders between early Viking/ Exploration of the Americas to some kind of whaling venture that comes across as 19th century. And I have to say, I just can't make it make sense.
Is the Norwegian coast/climate/fauna so similar to the Pacific Northwest? Is there any evidence of Vikings on the West Coast? Were there thralls in the time of large wooden ships? Ships that were big enough to carry smaller ships? Were there early Whaling vessels in the Viking era? Did they do a lot of Arctic exploration in the Bering Sea?
And even more troubling, where are the people? If this is a historical novel set in the Pacific Northwest, then the entire thriving Indigenous population that should have been up and down the coast is nowhere to be found. If this is set in Norway, why are there no settlements at all? The Vikings went a-Viking because their population exceeded their space. Aside from the fish camp and the ships, there is no mention of humans or their structures.
It says something about me that I just can't sit back and enjoy the book when the history is so unclear, but there it is. And truly, I know very little about Norway, so perhaps this does have a Norwegian setting. I'm extremely interested to hear what other people think about this.
Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.
Show Less
Awards
Buckeye Children's & Teen Book Award (Nominee — Grades 3-5 — 2023)
Nerdy Book Award (Middle Grade Fiction — 2022)
ISBN
1529069327 / 9781529069327