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by Jacqueline Briggs Martin Illustrated by Beth Krommes |
| (From the front book flap) "In 1913, a boat called Fish, part of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, became stuck in the Arctic ice. On board were a captain and crew, scientists and explorers, a cat, forty sled dogs, Inupiaq hunters, and an Inupaiq family with two small girls. |  |
Congratulations to
illustrator Beth Krommes who in 2009 was awarded the Caldecott Award for
illustrations she created for her book The House in the Night. Read more about her at www.bethkrommes.com. |
 For a larger image click here. |
Even with the Inupiat and their skills of hunting and sewing, even with
the family's care and wisdom, event with the compassion and courage of
their captain, odds for survival in the cold dark Arctic seem against
athe passengers of the Karluk. Here is a riveting, unforgettable story, poetically told and exquisitely illustrated with rounded scratchboard art that captures the strength and grace of Inupiaq culture. Details of centuries-old crafts and skills -- of sewing boots from caribou legs and ugruk skin, of quickly cutting snow houses, of wearing wooden goggles to ward off snowblindness -- will enrich modern imaginations. And by the story's end, listeners will know something of the way of life in the high north, something of the song of the place, the wide sky, the sound of the wind, the ptarmigan." |
The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish: Based on a True Story. Illustrated by Beth Krommes. Houghton Mifflin, 2001. ISBN 0-618-00341-X.
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Beth Krommes creates illustrations with scratchboard and watercolors. The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat called Fish is Beth Krommes second children's book for Houghton Mifflin. Her first book was Grandmother Winter by Phyllis Root (1999). For several years Krommes has loved and studied Inuit Art. She lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire with her family -- a husband and two young daughters.
All illustrations on this page are copyright by the illustrator Beth Krommes and used with permission. No further reproduction or republication is permitted without permission of the copyright holder. Houghton Mifflin Company, 222 Berkeley Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02116.
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Bibliography of Resources to accompany The
Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish.
- Nivens, Jennifer. The Ice Master. (2000) Hyperion. 416 pages. ISBN: 0-7868-6529-6.
- McKinley, William Laird. The Last Voyage of the Karluk: A Survivor's Memoir (1999, reissue) Griffin Trade/St. Martin's Griffin Press. ISBN 0-312-20655-0 . 168 pages.
- Walters,
Eric. Trapped in Ice(1997) Viking. Check
here for a review in CM Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 16 (April 10, 1998).
- Older
readers might research information about the Karluk Expedition by
reading McKinley's account, and compare the actual events to those
retold in The Lamp, the Ice, and a Boat called Fish and those
events recorded in Walters fictionalized account and in Jennifer
Nivens's The Ice Master
- A note about Sir Hurbert Wilkins, a photographer who was in the Arctic from 1913-1916 with the Karluk Expedition led by Vilhjalmur Stefansson.
Additional
References for older readers:
Different
writers treat the same story in different ways. Eric Walters wrote
about the Karluk in a young adult novel, Trapped in Ice but
changed many of the details. For example, in his fictionalized account
he changed the age of Pagnasuk, left out Makpii and invented a brother,
and did not include Kuralluk in the story at all. He added several
fictional characters to his account of the 1913 Canadian Arctic
Expedition.
www. jacquelinebriggsmartin.com
© 2010 Jacqueline Briggs Martin