Julie by
Jean Craighead George; Harper Trophy Publishers, © 1994
George’s Julie
is the sequel to the Newberry Award-Winning Julie of the Wolves. Early
in the story, the reader is given a recap of the major events of the previous story;
Julie, and Eskimo girl, had left her home to marry at the age of 13, and when
the relationship soured, she ran away, got lost in the tundra, and found solace
and protection from a pack of wolves. Much to her dismay, her father and a gussak,
or white man, killed Amoroq, the leader of the wolf pack and her best canine
friend, from an airplane. The story commences with Julie returning to her
father, Kapugen, bearing a grudge against him for what he did to Amoroq. Her
father had been told that Julie had died, so he is overwhelmed by her return.
Much has changed
since Julie left; Kapugen has taken a white wife, and Julie feels uncomfortable
with Ellen referring to Julie as her daughter. Julie hears the wolves howling
often, and she seeks to find the pack and communicate with them so that she can
convince them to leave the area and stay out of the danger of her father, who
kills them because they threaten his oxen farm. As the story progresses, Julie
transforms and develops as a character; she overcomes her prejudice against
Ellen while they are stranded in a terrible storm, and she reconciles with her
father regarding Amoroq. She also begins to find love again, something that she
had dismissed following her terrible marriage. When Julie’s beloved wolves kill
another ox, she convinces an angry Kapugen to let her go out into the tundra
and tell the wolves to leave. If she fails and they kill again, he will have no
choice but to hunt them down to save his business…
The book deals
with several very teachable themes. Racial and cultural tensions, domestic
tensions, and romance are all present in the story. The reader witnesses Julie
soften her hard exterior and open up to other cultures-the struggles that Julie
has with her stepmother, who is both new and not of Julie’s culture, can be
very relevant to students in similar situations. The domestic tensions in the
novel are quite realistic, and the notion behind them transcends cultural
lines. Thus students of any race who read Julie could connect with the
way that she feels towards her stepmother. Students dealing with racial tension
would have even more reason to relate to Julie’s emotions. Finally, Julie finds
romance with an older boy, and this is yet another applicable theme to student’s
lives that can be very teachable in a classroom.
The book does not
contain any inappropriate thematic material, and it is generally a very easy
read. This book may not appeal to all students, so it might be better to use
for independent reading; however, a full-class study of this book would also be
very possible. It would be beneficial to read Julie of the Wolves first,
as the story continues where that book left off. The only potentially challenging
aspect of this story for children is the Eskimo culture, as many students in
the lower 48 states are unfamiliar with it. George uses many Eskimo words and
names that could pose a challenge; she also writes about Arctic features that
are possibly very foreign to students, especially if they live in a warm
climate. Overall, this book makes for an easy read, and any student who read
the first book in the series and enjoyed it will like reading the sequel.
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