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On Thin Ice
ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards Honorable Mention - Young Adult Fiction 2006
Ashley Anowiak is in search of a murderous polar bear that may be real or mythical. The only thing for certain is that what she discovers will change her life - and her community's - forever.
In spite of its name, no one in the tiny troubled hamlet of Nanurtalik "the place with polar bears" can remember seeing a polar bear in decades. But when a teenager's dismembered body is discovered on a nearby ice road, everyone fears polar bears have returned. The community is thrown into chaos as another suspected bear attack sparks a flury of bullets that whiz through the town during a blinding four-day blizzard. Was it a real or phantom bear? No one can say for sure.
Ashley Anowiak is swept into this storm of confustion by her special link with polar bears expressed through the magic of her art and the terror of her dreams. She finds herself on the trail of Nanurluk, a giant bear that has haunted her people for thousands of years.
Ashley's bear hunt leads from the frozen catacombs beneath Itkiqtuqjuaq to the jumbled ice fields covering the Arctic Ocean. As she closes in on the bear, Ashley's inner and outer worlds are torn apart, leaving her desperate for any stability she can find.
This is the story of a gifted northern youth struggling to find her true home in a fast-changing arctic, where culture, climate and landscape seem to be crumbling all around her.
Ashley Anowiak is in search of a murderous polar bear that may be real or mythical. The only thing for certain is that what she discovers will change her life - and her community's - forever.
In spite of its name, no one in the tiny troubled hamlet of Nanurtalik "the place with polar bears" can remember seeing a polar bear in decades. But when a teenager's dismembered body is discovered on a nearby ice road, everyone fears polar bears have returned. The community is thrown into chaos as another suspected bear attack sparks a flury of bullets that whiz through the town during a blinding four-day blizzard. Was it a real or phantom bear? No one can say for sure.
Ashley Anowiak is swept into this storm of confustion by her special link with polar bears expressed through the magic of her art and the terror of her dreams. She finds herself on the trail of Nanurluk, a giant bear that has haunted her people for thousands of years.
Ashley's bear hunt leads from the frozen catacombs beneath Itkiqtuqjuaq to the jumbled ice fields covering the Arctic Ocean. As she closes in on the bear, Ashley's inner and outer worlds are torn apart, leaving her desperate for any stability she can find.
This is the story of a gifted northern youth struggling to find her true home in a fast-changing arctic, where culture, climate and landscape seem to be crumbling all around her.
- GenresFictionYoung AdultCanada
352 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2006
About the author
Jamie Bastedo
16 books7 followersAs a professional ecologist, outdoor educator, nature tour guide, radio broadcaster, video script writer, actor and children’s entertainer, Jamie Bastedo has been involved in many projects that bridge the realms of science, art and culture. His ability to weave these realms together in creative, street-friendly formats was recognized recently when he received the national Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion (one of only five given each year) and the Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee Medal.
As for Jamie's knowledge of bears, he has published numerous popular articles, book chapters and one major novel about bears and has first-hand experience working with bear biologists in various arctic habitats. The inspiration for this project arose while doing research and creative writing for a Canadian Museum of Nature exhibit on Arctic climate change aimed at adolescent and teenage audiences.
As for Jamie's knowledge of bears, he has published numerous popular articles, book chapters and one major novel about bears and has first-hand experience working with bear biologists in various arctic habitats. The inspiration for this project arose while doing research and creative writing for a Canadian Museum of Nature exhibit on Arctic climate change aimed at adolescent and teenage audiences.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 15, 2016
I don't normally write comments on books that I'm still in the process of reading, but every time I pick up this book, I end up with a lot to say.
First, it feels like this book didn't go through a serious editing process. The author's writing is weak, but in ways that could easily have been fixed. For example, Bastedo loves using colloquialisms, which should have been caught by an editor. Perhaps the colloquialisms were left intentionally, with the writer and editor thinking they represent some cultural way of speaking? They don't. They *might* if it's a character actually saying the colloquialism, but not when it's the author speaking.
Second, Bastedo lacked any kind of description about the location for a good chunk of the book. We're told the name of the town, and that's it. Why would an author who is using such an interesting setting (remote arctic village) that most people have never encountered, not describe it? It feels like Bastedo leaves us clues, and we're just supposed to figure out details of the location on our own. For example, on page 172, we learn that it's the most northern town on the continent. Page 172?
Bastedo does a strange thing with characters as well. Characters are very over-described, but with the same minimal description, over and over. For example, we're introduced to Uncle Jonah very early in the book, and quite a bit of space is given to emphasizing that he does his own thing and doesn't say much. We're not told much else about him. That's fine, if the intent is that the reader is seeing him from the main character's point of view, and the main character doesn't know much about him. But after such a significant amount of time spent on repetitive and minimal description of Uncle Jonah, he nearly disappears from the story after.
I suspect the author will reintroduce the character later in the story with some revelation that furthers the plot, but it's not just Uncle Jonah the author has done this minimalist-repetitive description to. *All* the characters get this treatment, and it becomes especially frustrating, because instead of seeing the characters act out their traits, we're just told their traits, over and over. It actually makes everyone very one-dimensional.
The main character's adopted brother Gabe is the one exception. The author does not tell us that Gabe is blind, autistic, and adopted until well into the book. When we first encounter Gabe's character, it's a confusing mess. The author has spent pages over-describing all the other characters in very flat ways, and then you encounter Gabe's very under-described character. I couldn't figure out, for example, why Gabe is always shouting. Everything Gabe says ends with, "shouted Gabe". I began to suspect that the character was autistic, but was left confused because given the amount of time spent describing the main qualities of all the other characters, wouldn't Gabe's autism also have been described?
I think Bastedo was trying to be sensitive, but it just created confusion and actually means that Gabe's character is singled out.
And of course, there are the gender roles. Bastedo is clearly trying to create an inclusive and non-traditional family. An adopted blind son, mixed heritage of Inuit, French, and Irish, an unusual pet, extended family living in the home. Etc. These are baby steps, and they don't actually push any boundaries. Not when you have a mother who stays home and spends every moment in the kitchen (literally staying up all night to cook fancy baked goods for guests). Not when you have children who roll their eyes at their mother and do everything short of actually telling her to shut up when she talks about the philosophy she believes in. When the men go out hunting polar bears and the girl is allowed to join so she can cook for them.
Sure, maybe that's how things happen in real life. But novels aren't real life, and if we're going to have characters and situations that uphold gender roles, then we need to have reaction in the book that addresses these roles.
First, it feels like this book didn't go through a serious editing process. The author's writing is weak, but in ways that could easily have been fixed. For example, Bastedo loves using colloquialisms, which should have been caught by an editor. Perhaps the colloquialisms were left intentionally, with the writer and editor thinking they represent some cultural way of speaking? They don't. They *might* if it's a character actually saying the colloquialism, but not when it's the author speaking.
Second, Bastedo lacked any kind of description about the location for a good chunk of the book. We're told the name of the town, and that's it. Why would an author who is using such an interesting setting (remote arctic village) that most people have never encountered, not describe it? It feels like Bastedo leaves us clues, and we're just supposed to figure out details of the location on our own. For example, on page 172, we learn that it's the most northern town on the continent. Page 172?
Bastedo does a strange thing with characters as well. Characters are very over-described, but with the same minimal description, over and over. For example, we're introduced to Uncle Jonah very early in the book, and quite a bit of space is given to emphasizing that he does his own thing and doesn't say much. We're not told much else about him. That's fine, if the intent is that the reader is seeing him from the main character's point of view, and the main character doesn't know much about him. But after such a significant amount of time spent on repetitive and minimal description of Uncle Jonah, he nearly disappears from the story after.
I suspect the author will reintroduce the character later in the story with some revelation that furthers the plot, but it's not just Uncle Jonah the author has done this minimalist-repetitive description to. *All* the characters get this treatment, and it becomes especially frustrating, because instead of seeing the characters act out their traits, we're just told their traits, over and over. It actually makes everyone very one-dimensional.
The main character's adopted brother Gabe is the one exception. The author does not tell us that Gabe is blind, autistic, and adopted until well into the book. When we first encounter Gabe's character, it's a confusing mess. The author has spent pages over-describing all the other characters in very flat ways, and then you encounter Gabe's very under-described character. I couldn't figure out, for example, why Gabe is always shouting. Everything Gabe says ends with, "shouted Gabe". I began to suspect that the character was autistic, but was left confused because given the amount of time spent describing the main qualities of all the other characters, wouldn't Gabe's autism also have been described?
I think Bastedo was trying to be sensitive, but it just created confusion and actually means that Gabe's character is singled out.
And of course, there are the gender roles. Bastedo is clearly trying to create an inclusive and non-traditional family. An adopted blind son, mixed heritage of Inuit, French, and Irish, an unusual pet, extended family living in the home. Etc. These are baby steps, and they don't actually push any boundaries. Not when you have a mother who stays home and spends every moment in the kitchen (literally staying up all night to cook fancy baked goods for guests). Not when you have children who roll their eyes at their mother and do everything short of actually telling her to shut up when she talks about the philosophy she believes in. When the men go out hunting polar bears and the girl is allowed to join so she can cook for them.
Sure, maybe that's how things happen in real life. But novels aren't real life, and if we're going to have characters and situations that uphold gender roles, then we need to have reaction in the book that addresses these roles.
February 27, 2015
Was really slow - didn't end up finishing
May 16, 2023
What this book is supposed to be about: An adventure novel about an Inuit girl who has an affinity with a polar bear in her dreams, and how climate change affects her people and the Polar Bears until they collide into an us vs them type climax.
Why I stopped reading:
There has to be better books that describe climate change and Inuit culture in an entertaining story that does not include shock value for the sake of it.
Why I stopped reading:
There has to be better books that describe climate change and Inuit culture in an entertaining story that does not include shock value for the sake of it.
November 22, 2025
Ashley’s family have moved to the northern Canadian village of Nanurtalik where because of her mixed heritage, she doesn’t feel she fits in with the Inuit people in her village or at school. But vivid dreams of polar bears and storms confuse and frighten her. And when she looks into Uncle Jonah staring at her, she senses fear. Will she be able to overcome and interpret her dreams?
This is a beautifully written YA coming of age story about Ashley discovering her roots and purpose with a window into Inuit culture.
This is a beautifully written YA coming of age story about Ashley discovering her roots and purpose with a window into Inuit culture.
January 10, 2026
I had high hopes for this book, but I was quite disappointed with what I read. There were some good aspects that good have been made into something cohesive, but ended up falling short with choppy and abrupt storytelling. The plot promised by the summary barely existed and was completely irrelevant to the vast majority of the story. This book was actually a coming-of-age story, but one that, to me, felt impersonal and without any stakes.
December 10, 2017
Great story and informative read on Inuit culture and climate change.
October 10, 2016
It was a very enjoyable read, with likable characters and an entertaining, often exciting, story. Coming into it with no knowledge of Canada’s Great White North other than what I learned in elementary school (which was next to nothing), I also found it informative and enlightening, with an interesting blend of folklore, science, and new age thinking.
An excerpt from my blog post The Canadian Reading Challenge: Northwest Territories
An excerpt from my blog post The Canadian Reading Challenge: Northwest Territories
June 16, 2015
I agree with Bastedo’s logic and how he gently nudges his reader into a greater understanding of what climate change actually means in real life as opposed to just being a catchphrase used by enterprising politicians. But what I enjoyed most about this book was that by the end, I truly wasn’t sure whether the polar bear had come close to the humans because of needing food, or because she had a personal connection with one of them. It was a mystical read, and though it didn’t seem to centre on Inuit beliefs, Bastedo does with his writing what Dr. Lyons does with his research, he works hard to combine Inuit knowledge with scientific knowledge.
April 1, 2009
I read this book about 3 years ago and really enjoyed it!
The story centers around a gifted young artist named Ashley, her quirky but hospitable mother, her gutsy father, her little brother Pauloosie and adopted brother Gabe, her uncle Jonah and aunt Aanna and her best friend Rosie. They live in a small community (made up of various interesting characters) up in the Arctic. You also learn alot about Polar bears.
Not only was the story very well told but the book also gives us a message...a wake up call really! I think this book would make a wonderful movie.
The story centers around a gifted young artist named Ashley, her quirky but hospitable mother, her gutsy father, her little brother Pauloosie and adopted brother Gabe, her uncle Jonah and aunt Aanna and her best friend Rosie. They live in a small community (made up of various interesting characters) up in the Arctic. You also learn alot about Polar bears.
Not only was the story very well told but the book also gives us a message...a wake up call really! I think this book would make a wonderful movie.
March 19, 2016
This is rated as a young adult book, and would do fine for readers of 15+. Very well written - the author lives in Yellowknife and has first hand experience of the environment described in the novel. The story revolves around a teenage girl living in the high Arctic, who comes to terms with her shamanic link to the great polar bear . Personally, although I enjoyed the story, i found that the novel somehow disturbed me deeply, made me feel jumpy and anxious. Don't really know why , but it must have touched some deeply covered psychological elements in me.
March 23, 2015
A story about an Inuit teenage girl who learns about her true self through dreams, art, drumming, and the people who surround her. I had the privilege of playing an Inuit drum this year (A Qilauti) and hearing a man sing his Ajai jaa song (a person's life in song). "On Thin Ice" by Jamie Bastedo brought the Inuit culture to life for me in a such a beautiful and haunting way. I think every teen in Canada should read this book!
August 3, 2009
This book was awesome. (Even though I couldn't go to sleep for fear of nightmares.)This book was eye-opening...and I loved the glimpses into Inuit culture. The Nanturluk depiction was awesome. An enormous she-bear, with a necklace of human heads and fresh blood dripping from her fangs...
June 21, 2013
This wasn't what I expected. I was hoping for a fairytale and got folklore. It was set in a northern arctic town and it's cold blustery storms helped me through some hot hot days here.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews