Tuk and the Whale

About this book

During the early 1600s there was an active whaling industry in Canada. Whale oil was used to light the streets and buildings of European cities and to manufacture leather wool and soap. The baleen was used to make everything from carriage springs to corsets. Told from the point of view of a young Inuit boy named Tuk this story imagines what might have happened if the people of Tuks Baffin Island winter camp had encountered European whalers blown far from their usual whaling route. Both the hunters and the whalers prize the bowhead whale for different reasons. Together they set out on a hunt though they are all on new and uncertain ground. Scrupulously researched and vetted this early chapter book inspires discussion about communication between two groups of people with entirely different world views early whaling practices and a productive partnership that also foreshadows serious problems to come. Simply and beautifully told Tuk and the Whale now in paperback includes a glossary historical note and recommendations for further reading.