I Am the Ice Worm - Softcover

Easley, Maryann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 044041444X ISBN 13: 9780440414445

Publisher: Yearling, 1998

Synopsis

Fourteen-year-old Allison Atwood is traveling to visit her mother in Alaska when her plane crashes near the Arctic Circle. The pilot is killed and Allison is alone in a wilderness of ice and snow. Thankfully she's rescued by an I-upiat trapper who takes her to his village. Here she is the "ice worm," the outsider, far removed from her life in Southern California. But as time passes, the villagers change Allison's life, and she changes theirs as well.

About this title

Review:

Fourteen year-old Allison from suburban California is in a bush-plane flying to visit her mom in a small village in Alaska--and the plane crashes with her as the sole survivor. Rescued by an indigenous hunter who luckily happens upon the crash, she lives and travels with Iñupiat Alaskans (commonly but improperly known as Eskimo), struggles with her withdrawal from her past life as a mall-rat, and gains extraordinary insights into the virtues and value of the indigenous culture.

I absolutely loved this book, and I am certain that most young adults would too.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 5-7-A well-intentioned but poorly executed story. Fourteen-year-old Allison is stranded above the Arctic Circle when the small plane in which she is flying crashes and the pilot is killed. She is rescued by an I?upiat hunter. While she awaits the repair of the radio so she can reach her mother, who teaches in Alaska. Allison is drawn into the village community. Although filled with interesting details about the I?upiat way of life and the challenges posed by increasing contact with the outside world, the events are nevertheless predictable and the characters superficial and sometimes stereotyped. Allison, who begins the book as self-centered and materialistic, of course matures and changes through her exposure to another culture, but she seems merely a device, never a fully realized and sympathetic character. A clunky subplot concerning an outcast deaf girl whom she befriends because she happens to know sign language seems gratuitous. Despite the author's obvious knowledge of the territory, the novel remains pedestrian and readers remain, as does Allison, on the outside looking in.
Cyrisse Jaffee, formerly at Newton Public Schools, MA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yearling
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 044041444X
• ISBN 13: 9780440414445
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128