Drifting Snow: An Arctic Search

by James A. Houston

Sent as a young child to southern Canada to escape a plague of tuberculosis, Elizabeth, a teenage Inuit-Eskimo, returns to the North to reclaim her heritage and find her true family.

Hardcover

First published October 1, 1992

About the author

James Archibald Houston

Reviews

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this is an interesting story which would appeal to a younger reader, there are a few significant flaws which prevent me from giving more than three stars to it. There are spelling mistakes and grammatical errors several times throughout this edition. More significantly though, the young girl who is looking for her family describes things she remembers in a excessively juvenile way. If I asked a child who had been living in the modern world to describe how they had driven somewhere they would say they drove in a car or buggy etc.. Even if they were describing the first time they saw a car they would call it a car. This book says "I was put into something with round wheels that rolled over the land". Keep in mind this is being said by a girl who has spent the last 10-12 years far south of her people and who flew there in an airplane. She clearly knows what a car is. Flaws like this in a book make it unpalatable for me. Perhaps for the intended audience this would go by unnoticed, but I think even my 7-year-old would pick up on this kind of thing and find it irritating.

[Ella Kiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the story of how the Inuit survive independently from society. I enjoyed the story but not enough to where I would keep it and read it again. I wish the ending had some more explanation as to what happened next, but it was a good book.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Most of the reason I went with "liked it" is because I finally found it again after 10+ years. As for the story itself, it was a little disjointed, illogical, and sometimes took a kind of ugh tone with the cultural aspects. The prose was "pretty" at times when it didn't really work, imo, but all right. And finally, the resolution was also fairly dissatisfying, or at least kind of a letdown that left the door open for further resolution.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like stories of the Inuit