From the world-award-winning writer comes the gripping, true story of a group of Alaskan Eskimo students who, despite nearly impossible odds, achieve one of the most stunning educational feats in the history of American education. In 1982, George Guthridge brought his wife and two young daughters to Gambell, Alaska, a small village on the edge of the remote blizzard-swept St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, one of the harshest and most remote places in Alaska. Guthridge was there to teach at a Siberian-Yupik school -- a school so troubled it was under threat of closure. For its own reasons, the school district enters the students into one of the most difficult academic competitions in the nation. The school has no computers and very few books. The students lack world knowledge and speak English as a second language. Still, George resolves to coach them to a state championship. But the students have an even greater goal of their own. Hilarious, disturbing, densely atmospheric -- and packed with surprises at every turn -- The Kids from Nowhere is a powerful, poignant story that will make you want to cry and cheer at the same time. Similar to an Alaskan Stand and Deliver , this is an inspiring story of triumph over adversity that provides a fascinating view of a remote Alaska Native village.
I liked this book, but it feels like there's something missing. The characters feel a bit flat, and there are lots of plot threads that get introduced and quickly dropped. Still, it's a fun feel-good story that occasionally calls attention to the difficult conditions that many indigenous Americans live in.
The subtitle of this book is "The Story Behind the Arctic Educational Miracle." It is the true story of a group of neglected Yupik Eskimo students who live on an island in the Bering Sea and attend a school threatened with closure. They are the sons and daughters of whale hunters, and English is their second language. It is also the story of their gifted mentor, George Guthridge, who takes the difficult job of teaching them in an effort to make money fast so he can move on to do other things, but then falls in love with his students and their people. Under his coaching, the school forms a team to compete in a statewide academic competition called "Future Problem Solving." How Guthridge prepares his students for the competition, how their education changes their lives and his, and the ultimate outcome of the competition on both the state and national levels make for inspiring reading. I was very close to giving this book five stars, but it was just a bit slow in parts. The end, however, had me reading into the middle of the night.
while story may be compelling i found the authors voice to be arrogant. I also found the book to be poorly written and the way in which the story unfolded (the author having access to moments in kids lives that seemed private) for me made his point of view seem rather presumptuous. I feel that the style, format and tone of the book detracted from the story.
This made my teacher heart happy. I would definitely recommend this book to teachers, but I think it might be boring if you don't have that background. What an impressive example of a teacher. I learned a lot about the Eskimo culture.
I am a high school student living in Barrow Alaska and I read this book for my Iñupiaq literature course. This book supprised me because at first I didnt think it was going to be very good but in the end it was a really good book. It is an amazing story about a group of kids that didn't really have a teacher that really tried to teach them until George got there. George believed in them and encouraged them to compete in an international academic competition. This book goes over how hard they had to work to get to where they are now. It talks about how they work out the problem during the competition and how they showed people that they might be the kids from nowhere but they are just as smart as everyone else if not more.
I don't entirely blame the author for the tone of the book. Too often in society we champion the outsider coming in to help the children "overcome" their surroundings. While I personally enjoyed reading about the environment in which he taught, I think the title of this book could've easily been "How I moved to the middle of nowhere and helped a bunch of kids succeed in school." The book to me was much more about the author and his experience than it was about the students and their experiences. I also found it weird that there were characters introduced at the beginning of the book who disappear and do not return.
Memoir by a US science fiction author & educationalist of his first two years, 1982–1984, as high-school teacher at Gambell on St Lawrence Island, one of the most westerly Eskimo (the word that was used then) settlements in the USA. Shortly after arrival, he was told by the headmaster that he was to teach the Future Problem Solving Progam (FPSP), which had been created in 1974, but which nobody there had yet heard of.
The book is a description of Guthridge and his pupils finding out about the Program, and each other, and ultimately winning the national FPSP competition at both Junior High & High School levels. What stands out is the students’ ‘superhuman’ ability to absorb & digest complex intellectual & scientific information in the short breaks between all manner of community events and distractions, from whale-hunting to powercuts, and in spite of the blatant racism of half of the school staff, half of their own community, the district educational administration and society at large. Guthridge, as well as his wife & two daughters, is at first ostracised and bullied for being white, but his dedication to teaching and his determination won over his pupils and eventually most of his colleagues.
The price of this success is the author’s sleepless nights & his health, which is almost ruined by the end of the book. I say ‘almost’ because he is apparently still alive, though from the text alone I would have bet against it. The stress from every page infects the reader. Beside the banal and systemic instances of racism so nicely described, this kind of extreme competitiveness, surely something that white USers have introduced into native cultures – indeed, fostered in the wider world – should not have gone unchallenged. And the various references to pop, Halloween, high fives & BS are for me, a non-USer, at least as alien as the traditions practised and honed over the 2600 years of habitation of St Lawrence Island.
The limitation of the Future Problem Solving Program itself to a children’s game, even today, is surely also a testament to how white culture excludes most of the creativity of most people in tackling society’s challenges. This immensely inspiring book about the potential for human inginuity is neatly tempered by the ‘where they are now’ biographies in the epilogue.
In the novel The Kids from Nowhere, we, as readers, are brought on an amazingly emotional journey due to this story behind the Arctic educational miracle. George Guthridge wrote this novel, inspired by everything that occurred during his time there. He was the one put in charge of the Future Problem Solving Program, which is supposed to build student leadership. In the first year, he was in charge of three teams in separate divisions - the high school team (tenth through twelfth grade), the junior high team (seventh through ninth grade), and the elementary team (fourth through sixth grade). The teams were put to the test, going against teams that had ivy-league level intellect. The Future Problem Solving Program participants from Gambell proved everyone wrong and ended up winning it all: “‘It’s Sharon Green,’ he whispers. ‘She’s still got that smile.’ I jerk up my head, eyeing her. ‘Not possible,’ I tell him. ‘Anything’s possible,’ he says. ‘No school has ever won two Problem Solving national championships in the same year,’ I remind him. ‘No one.’ ‘I doubt if there are more than half a dozen schools that have ever won two national academic team championships in anything in the same year,’ Bruce says. ‘And with this year’s high school national champions,’ Dr. Crabbe announces, ‘with a record-breaking score of 237.5 points, Gambell, Alaska!’ More squealing and yelling, Marshall holding the sides of his head as if shaking himself awake and saying, ‘Oh man, oh man, oh man.’ Merle gives Boone a high-five” (316). The Future Problem Solving Program was something close to a joke in the very beginning, teachers not believing that George was good enough to be put to the task. In the first year, they were close to winning, still getting the hang of things and learning effective ways to retain knowledge and create problems that could occur. The second year, however, they were more successful. They were more determined than ever to beat everyone and rise to the top; no one ever thought that those from Gambell would do the impossible. They had been labeled “uneducable.” They were the children of whale and walrus hunters. They lived on a blizzard-swept island in the Bering Sea. Their troubled school was threatened with closure. They had no computers and almost no books. They spoke English as a second language. They had little world knowledge. Their teacher was ill. Together, they achieved what others called impossible. They proved everyone wrong when they said that the Future Problem Solving Program was a joke; they proved everyone wrong when they tried to take away George’s rights as a teacher to teach them; they proved everyone wrong when they said that this was distracting; they proved everyone wrong when they learned.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This is an amazing story about a group of indigenous students in Alaska beating the odds and doing the impossible. The world is stacked up against these characters in every way and somehow they begin to love learning and they prove that their Eskimo culture has given them a unique perspective to solving big problems. The story is a 5. Despite my personal interest in this book, I had a hard time getting through it. The author (written by the coach) didn’t develop the characters enough... storylines were dropped, at times the dialogue was too detailed , people were hard to follow/connect with, and it jumped all over the place. I only made myself finish it because I wanted to see how they did in the competitions! I have worked with youth in many indigenous communities and have witnessed them internalize the judgements places on them. People don’t expect greatness and they certainly don’t provide them the same resources that students get off the “Rez”. It’s amazing to me that the author had no background working with indigenous students and somehow he build trust and found a way to incorporate their culture into the curriculum. We need to start listening and give weight to indigenous perspectives in order to tackle our complex issues. The epilogue states that one of the students is now an essayist... if somehow you read this, can you write this story for your perspective? I’ll be the first to buy a copy :)
Time, the Eskimos taught me, cannot be measured by clocks or calendars. Life's benchmarks, I came to realize, are luck and love, the migration of whales, the changing of the weather.
St. Lawrence Island, which teeters on the edge of the world.....
...for is not the greatest challenge for many of us teachers the realization that our families are not in the cloister of our homes but in the chaos of the classroom.
We used to roar like lions and we hunted like lions. We were a pride and we had pride. Then tigers came along and said we should live like tigers. We told ourselves, "Shouldn't we be more like them - more individualistic?" So we tried to roar like tigers and to live like tigers. But soon we realized we weren't tigers. And then we found that we weren't lions anymore either.
I am afraid to ask. Only a fool would pet the rabid.
Peter Principle - rising to the level of one's incompetence.
page 175 to 179. hilarious!
"You white people have it easy. You see your relatives when you feel like it, you support whichever ones you wish. You usually only have to worry about your own family. Just yourselves and your kids. What do sociologists call that group, the father, mother, and their kids?" "You mean nuclear family?" Again the bitter laugh. "Sounds like a bomb classification. "
July 2025. After visiting Alaska I was eager to get my hands on this book our beloved and adventurous family friends had given us years back. They both served in a remote village in the Alaskan bush as a school administrator and nurse practitioner, and would come back laden with stories (and salmon). This book is an inspiring account of teaching, being taught, and place, and the writing really gleams in the first half especially. I was troubled by the authorial voice at points; it gave me the sense of being unaware when the focus slipped from the self-titled “kids from nowhere” and into a slightly more sardonic version of the white-savior story. I also kept wondering about Gretchen! But ultimately, a beautiful story I feel grateful to have been invited into. What a life! And so many incidents with snowmachines!
I read this book whenever I'm needing academic inspiration and it never fails. A story of supposedly 'uneducable' students from a remote Alaskan village, driven by their teacher and cultural pride, take the academic world by storm. They practice and prepare for a new program: Future Problem Solving. Everyone doubted them and their teacher. But they do the impossible: they not only participate in the program, but they also succeed. Their grit and determination amidst all obstacles always leaves me inspired to learn more.
This is a very good book but I do feel for a selective audience... unfortunately. Which speaks to what the book is about for me! I feel like there is a lot packed into it reference our culture, education system, administrations, open mindedness and lack there of, survival, human nature. These kids are an extreme example of a program that worked so why do we not grab hold of the concepts and implement them in smaller doses across the board? Yes, I realize this does happen but I would like to see greater acceptance.
This is a fascinating true story from an educator/teacher and the students he learned from. I was surprised at how well I enjoyed this book. I wanted to read what would happen to all of them. I wonder if this Future Problem Solvers competition is still a thing. At first, it made me think a little bit of the classic teacher movie. Stand and Deliver. I recommend this book for teachers and non-teachers as just an overcoming struggles book.
An amazing story about a strong vigilant groups of kids that no educator has believed in them until, now. They worked hard, loved hard and fought hard to achieve what very few kids even attempt. A poetic story showcasing an indigenous culture and how they have and have not changed through the course of 2300 years.
Excellent. A great glimpse into a world so unlike our white world. Some good quotes....
“Sometimes I think it’s like this: we used to roar like tigers, and we hunted like tigers. Then lions came along, and we said to ourselves, ‘wouldn’t it be nice to be like lions?’ So we roared like lions and hunted like lions. But then we realized we weren’t Lions. And we found out we weren’t tigers anymore, either.”
“After school they’ll eat at McDonald’s, and tonight they’ll go home and eat what someone else slaughtered and tell their parents that we’re murderers.”
I greatly enjoyed the cultural side of this book. However, I thought the author was somewhat arrogant, and the descriptions of the competition to be long-winded and boring.
This book is extremely well written and just a very good book. It is a very motivational story of some kids from a native village who do the impossible. I love this book and it taught me a lot.
This one is for bookgroup. I've only read up through the prologue at this point (a whopping 3 pages), but my hackles are already up. We'll see how it goes. If nothing else, it should make for some interesting discussion! *************** After pondering for awhile how to articulate what annoyed me about the prologue, I think the tone of it was over-romantic and saccharine. Way too goody-goody. But, thankfully, the tone changed and it got better from there. In fact, I ended up really enjoying this story of a bunch of rag-tag kids from a remote Alaskan village whose teacher helps them to discover their own potential and then beat the odds to become a nationally recognized academic team. (Phew!) I wish that the story was a little more immediate-- the events in the story took place in the early 1980s, while the book was published in 2006-- and sometimes it feels like the storytelling is maybe hazed because of the time elapsed. I wish maybe the depictions of some of the students were more detailed; that there was more insight concerning the program's and/or teacher's detractors; and maybe some more honesty or at least reflection on the author's own choices during that time regarding his health and his personal relationships (because they certainly seemed to have affected many of his choices). As a reader, I found myself feeling distant. What I wanted was to feel like I was there.
This is a moving story about a group of students and their determined teacher on their journey to nationals in the Future Problem Solvers educational competition. The Kids from Nowhere is one of those inspirational tales a la Dangerous Minds, Dead Poets Society, Freedom Writers, etc. As a professor, I love stories like this; they motivate me to be better and remind me that students do actually want to learn, something not so obvious on a daily basis.
What makes this addition to the educational inspiration oeuvre unique is its cast of characters. The students are mainly native Eskimos (their term) on a small island in Alaska who are thought of as ineducable. Their culture plays a huge role in their intellectual advancement. Then there is the teacher, who differs from the standard motivational teacher in his readily admitted flaws. His family, in particular his daughters, bring a whole new level to the tale in the discrimination they face for being white. Add on administrators and other teachers who are completely (and irrationally) opposed to the students' success and you have a believable, frustrating, amazing, very real group of people that I wanted to know more about.
While this book will certainly appeal to educators of all grade levels, I firmly believe the book is both entertaining and edifying for those outside the educational system as well.
Fascinating (you get a peek into the life of kids from a small Eskimo community still practicing subsistence living on an Alaskan island) and inspiring (teacher and kids striking that cord of mutual inspiration that previously seemed impossible, the severe "underdogs" going on against unbelievable odds to surpass everyone's expectations... and what's more, are now donating proceeds from the book to Greg Mortensen's foundation to build schools...) I also appreciated the honesty of the bad along with the good, and the difficulties he and his family experienced. The type of book I would love my kids to read when they get older...with perhaps a reminder that you don't need to "win" or get recognition and glory in order to be successful. Hearing such amazing stories sometimes it's good for everyone to have that perspective check.
I finally got my hands on this book and couldn't put it down. I read it in less then 24 hours. It was so intriguing and unpredictable. I don't know a lot about the people in Alaska. I have never been there and have never met an Eskimo. This is a true story of a teachers experience with the kids in a remote part of Alaska at the end of the world. He takes on the impossible and helps children that have a very small future accomplish national recognition. They already know how to work hard and they already know how to hunt like grown ups in their village so by taking the skills they already have he teaches them to solve problems. Big problems. I think these kids are way smarter then I am and they have much more determination then I ever had. The book is a journey and when you are finished you feel like you understand a part of yourself that you didn't know existed.
This book detailed a group of Yupik Eskimo children living on a remote island in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska (near Siberia) and their teacher. I found the story truly fascinating and it reinforced my belief that teaching is really an art. Finding a way to get through to these isolated students and give them the power to excel is admirable. Some reviewers commented that the author's tone was arrogant and criticized the story because a white man came in and "saved" these kids. I didn't find the tone arrogant and, well, a white man DID come in and save these kids. Should he be faulted for that or is that a good thing? I thought the character of some of the kids could have been more fully developed and I would have liked to have seen more of an update on the teacher's illness and his own issues and how those were resolved. But overall this was a truly inspirational story.
This is an excellent book which shows that students/children anywhere can learn, shine and thrive with encouragement, goals and the belief of those who teach them. Sometimes the journey of teaching and learning is difficult and arduous, but the outcome is incredible. Believe in yourself and the abilities around you.
There is nothing that can't be done, but the challenges on one's health and the positive outlook is something that requires patience and insights. Sometimes the "health" aspect was negated by the author. He was lucky with his outcome as things could have been disastrous to not just himself but those young minds in his care.
This book gave me, an educator- even though elementary school, encouragement and a sense of awe. The book gave me energy and ideas for my own career.
A fabulous true story that rekindles your faith in people and what they can do when they let their passion explode, resist the status-quo and persevere to impact others... making them rise above what they believed they could be.
A group of northern Yupiks are assigned a new non-native teacher on sabbatical from writing... this teacher is not sure of what he'd like to do and is struggling with his own demons... the instruction flows both ways... the teacher is enlightened and learns from the Yupiks. What is inspirational is how the teacher uses his understanding of the Yupik culture and nature to show them how far they can go when they meld the Yupik and non-native style of problem-solving.
What an inspiring and truthful experience of a rural Alaska teacher. It was especially helpful for me to see how other teachers address some of the issues I battle and worry about as an Alaska teacher. And it's absolutely stunning to see how successful he was. George Guthridge is a wonderful person and teacher to have coached, inspired and guided this group of students to such success.
His battles with self-doubt, illness and depression are so familiar, and it's really encouraging to see a teacher overcome all that and lead students to such a huge success for themselves.
In the process of looking for a new book for a community read, I stumbled across this one, as it has some ties to Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea as far as its emphasis on the need to educate those who are often overlooked. It is an inspiring story of a man who moved his white family to St. Lawrence Island at the "edge of forever" in Alaska. He was not intending to be a hero--he was broke and thought he could make a lot of money teaching there. The book tells the story of his family's acclimation, his students, and the teams he coached in a challenging academic competition that no one thought they should even enter. Not my typical read, but I enjoyed it.
This book is about a man and his family who move to remote Alaska to teach 'unteachable' kids. It is quite amazing what he accomplishes, especially under such rotten circumstances. I gave it only 3 stars because I love this genre of books--true stories of one person doing so much good for the world--and it's just not as inspiring as some of my favorites. What I found truly fascinating is the peek it gave me of how one lives in the arctic and how the culture there plays out. I would definitely recommend it for a semi-quick, light read.
Wow! Once I started this true book (some names were changed), I just couldn't put it down. The blurb on the back of the book says:
They had been labeled "uneducable". They were children of whale and walrus huntere. They lived on a blizzard-swept island in the Bering Sea. Their troubled school was threatened with closure. They had no computers and almost no books. They spoke English as a second language. They had little world knowledge. Their teacher was ill. Together they achieved what others called impossible.
I was really surprised by this book. It started out quiet; a young family reaching out to an experience far outside what they knew. And slowly I got hooked on this teacher and his dedication to show kids what they are capable of accomplishing. It was a struggle, it was powerful and I was intrigued by his teaching method. A method he conceived and tailored for his students. Of course there were costs to this life, painful moments. But there was the challenge and excitement of competition. It was an a fascinating, fun read. Thanks George.