Ice Drift

Theodore Taylor, author of gripping adventure stories ("The Cay" - #044022912X) has written a tale filled with familial warmth and cultural nuggets, "ICE DRIFT." It centers on life among the Inuit in settlements north of Baffin Island. Their living arrangements & diet are of particular interest. Foods such as 'blood pudding' are mentioned, and also the unusual talent of 'throat singing'. As the niece of an Antarctic explorer who died in an igloo while doing climate studies for the government in 1950s, I am curious to know why a Horn Book reviewer described Theodore Taylor's book as "a routine survival story"! That has to be an oxymoron? Some tales of discovery may suffer from excess 'embroidery' but Taylor has authored a winner that will reach an audience far wider than the targeted middle graders. (In a different way Andrew Revkin's book "The North Pole Was Here" - #0753461382 - shows how global warming has caused drastic changes in the Arctic Circle). Two young boys find themselves adrift on a narrow floe in the Greenland Strait after an iceberg breaks loose. Just staying alive is their aim but to somehow draw attention of rescuers competes for top attention. Ten year old Sulu peppers his older brother Alika, asking anxiously about what their parents might be doing at that moment, or, questioning how long it will take before someone sees them float by. Taylor's descriptions of the brothers show them deeply anxious for each other's welfare; Alika, who becomes fifteen during the long ordeal, is especially sensitive to Sulu's different personality and interests. Decades later we are asking how these people & their culture have survived arrogance and power grabs, as well as all the environmental mistakes that have been made, primarily by governments and corporations. Taylor's book "ICE DRIFT" is not about a government's inhumanity (as described in Melanie McGrath's "The Long Exile" - #0007157975) but is a tale of boys adapting to the worst circumstances imaginable with courage and fortitude, drawing faith from what their Shaman has taught. In Capatin Thierry Mallett's book ("Plain Tales of the North - #B00008639AE, published in 1925 & 1925) a similar quandary is faced by two even younger brothers. Both stories may have been inspired by an incident recorded in 1868. Moving at a fast momentum these tales will grip your interest and propel readers to satisfying conclusions. This reader/reviewer gives each high marks and will soon be recommending more books, and films, on the exciting subject of "poles apart".

In my wildest dreams I can not imagine living on an ice floe for 7 days let alone 7 months. Well that is what Ice Drift is about. It was written by a very talented author named Theodore Taylor. This adventure book is about two brothers and their dog that are stranded on an ice floe. What will happen? The main characters in this book are 14 year old Alika, 10 year old Sulu, and their dog Jamka. Alika is strong, courageous, and skillful. Jamka is helpful and protective, and Sulu is understanding, meek, and full of questions. The adventure starts when the chunk of ice Alika, Sulu and Jamka are standing upon breaks off and drifts away while Alika is hunting seals. The big question in their minds is will we survive? A big problem and event in this story is survival. Alika, Sulu, and Jamka needed shelter, food, and protection. For shelter they built a big igloo out of chuncks of ice. The igloo takes a whole day to build. For food they stood at seal holes picked out by Jamka. Alika and Sulu stood for hours sometimes without catching anything, but most of the time they did. Lastly, they needed protection from predators, especially naunk (polar bears). Their hard work finally paid off when they got rescued by hunters. It was a good thing too, because Sulu fell in the water near the end of their adventure on the ice floe. He got sick, but he got the care he needed when they got rescued. They all made it! My favorite scene in the book was when Alika, Sulu, and Jamka's homecoming. To me, this was a symbol of the courage and strength it took to overcome their challenges and live to tell the story. My favorite character in Ice Drift was Alika because at night when Sulu would ask questions about their home village of Nunatak, he would always try to answer them in the most positive way. What really stood out for me was how the author put lots of work making the characters so interesting, and how every minute of the book was so good you didn't want to put it down. I would highly recommend this book because it has a lot of adventure, survival, and the characters are fun. I would rate this book a nine for the same reasons. Ice Drift is a great book!

What if you were stranded on a huge ice floe for six months, fighting starvation and polar bears? Inuit brothers, Alika and Sulu, had this happen to them. They were hunting for seals when suddenly the ice started to shake, and then cracked. The ice floe was breaking free from land! The only thing they could do was watch themselves drifting away from everything they've ever know, toward the Greenland strait. They built a shelter quickly, but the hunt for seals, their main food, toke longer then they expected. Polar bears come and go, and energy was running out. Jamka, their lead sled dog that stayed faithfully with his owners, did all he could to keep the brothers safe. The sled that was once full of supplies had run out and was stripped to only a few scraps of wood. Then, when the sun came out, the ice floe began to shrink. Will they survive? I really enjoyed this book because it leaves suspense at the end of every chapter. My favorite part of the story is when the polar bear is about to attack Sulu, and Alika...well, you'll have to read the story to see what happens. Theodore Taylor writes so realistically that it's almost like you're on the ice floe with the brothers. I recommend this book for kids who like to read about survival and the strength between two brothers.

Fourteen-year-old Alika and ten-year-old Sulu are Inuit brothers who live up in the Arctic, near Greenland. While hunting seals, Alika hears the ice cracking, and then the ice floe they are on breaks free from land and starts drifting south. Alika turns the sledge dogs loose, hoping that they will make it back to the village and alert his family what had happened. Maybe he and his brother can be rescued before they die. After all, only one other man had survived being caught on an ice floe. The others have disappeared, never to be seen again. Somehow, on the barren ice floe, Alika must find shelter and food. They must also protect themselves from polar bears and the bitter cold, all in the darkness of an Artic winter. Will Alika and Sulu survive on their own? Set in 1868, Ice Drift is an interesting story about two boys who fight for survival in the wild. The story is more narrative than point of view, and I think it would have been a better book had it been written with a point of view. Even so, the story is dramatic and it is fascinating learning about the historical Inuit culture. Included in the book are Inuit vocabulary words and also wonderful little bits of information about ice floes, the Inuit people, and the Artic region. Discussion questions are also included at the end of the book. Armchair Interviews says: This book is excellent for elementary age students and will teach them something about their northern neighbors.

Ice Drift, by Theodore Taylor, was an exciting adventure story of two brothers and their struggle for survival. It was October 1868, and fourteen-year-old Alika and his younger brother Sulu, who was ten, were fishing for seals on a floe of ice. All of a sudden an iceberg knocked their floe from shore. This was the beginning of the brothers' six month journey down the Greenland Strait. Theodore Taylor has a dog named Hydra so that was probably why he put the dog, Jamka, in the book. Also, one of his hobbies is fishing so he had Alika, Sulu, and Jamka fishing when the floe broke free from shore. Alika was one of the main characters I enjoyed reading about in the book. He was brave and would do anything for his little brother. He took care of his brother when he was sick and about to die, and he would always answer his annoying questions in a positive way. Alika was my favorite character because the brothers couldn't survive without him. He gathered all their food and acted very fatherly. This book wouldn't be as exciting if Sulu wasn't in it. When they were on the floe of ice, he acted as a reality check. He would always ask, "Will we die out here?" and "When will we be home?" Sulu would ask questions Alika thought were annoying, but I thought he was funny. I also thought the bond between the two brothers grew and became strong and unbreakable. Another character I loved was Maja, Alika and Sulu's mother. Her love for her sons was strong, and nobody could stop her from trying to rescue them. Kussu, the brothers' father, was loving and compassionate but didn't have the determination Maja had. Maja is just one reason to read this book. The characters demonstrated many survival skills and key qualities in this book. Some of them are knowledge, bravery, hunting skills, knowing how to gather water, knowing how to build a shelter for warmth, perseverance, and determination. Both Alika and Sulu have these qualities and many more. There are many parts I liked about this book. I enjoyed reading about the beliefs of the Inuit. They believed that there were spirits for everything in nature. I also liked learning about the Arctic and how cold it is there. Parts of this book were gripping, particularly the end. In the end I just wouldn't put the book down because it was so exciting and tense. I stayed up really late at night, finishing the book. There were a couple of items I disliked about Ice Drift. At first, I didn't like how the scene switched from Alika, Sulu, and Jamka's life to Maja and Kussu's life. In the end, I realized why Theodore Taylor did that and I liked it. Since I loved the book so much I didn't like when the book ended. I wish it had kept going. I also didn't like how you could predict parts of the book since there were clues throughout the book. Overall, I still greatly enjoyed Ice Drift. This book took place in 1868-1869. Therefore, Alika, Sulu, and Jamka didn't have the same electronic items we