The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish: Based on a True Story 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.

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."

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Connections and Activities to Try

Bibliography of Resources to accompany The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish.


Additional References for older readers:


• Nivens, Jennifer. The Ice Master. (2000) Hyperion. 416 pages. ISBN: 0-7868-6529-6. For more information about this book click on the author's page. . To read a interview with Nivins, click here.
• 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.



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.


• Walters, Eric. Trapped in Ice(1997) Viking. For a review of this YA novel, click here or 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
  

Some notes related to the Karluk Expedition:

• A note about Sir Hurbert Wilkins, a photographer who was in the Arctic from 1913-1916 with the Karluk Expedition led by Vilhjalmur Stefansson.
• A brief note about the survivors. Scroll to January 11, click on the small picture to see a larger image of the tent used by the survivors of the Karluk.