My Name Is Not Easy in Mock Newbery 2026

Dec 20, 2011 Wendy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011-award-possibilities

It isn't surprising that this book was up for the National Book Award, and I expect to see it at Scott O'Dell time, too. The story is fascinating, giving us just enough of the life back on the tundra to tantalize, and never overexplaining to its readers the things that can be deducted. (One reviewer below complains because the author doesn't explain the difference between Indians and "Eskimos" [who are in conflict with each other at the boarding school], which the reviewer feels is particularly ...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Deanna Day rated it really liked it

Historical fiction--1960s, Alaska, Native Americans, siblings, school

I loved Edwardson's Blessings Beads a couple of years ago and looked forward to reading this newest novel.

In the opening chapter Luke Bunna, and Isaac are boarding a plane to go to Sacred Heart school outside Fairbanks, Alaska. The three brothers are Eskimo and have never left home or been on an airplane. Immediately Isaac is "taken" because he is too young to attend school. Luke and Bunna are distraught because their mother in ...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Barbara rated it really liked it

Shelves: civil-rights, community, travel, death, abusive-relationships, cultural-identity, social-justice, families, languages, alcohol

Readers familiar with the boarding schools to which many Native American children were forced to go will have some awareness of the context for this book. However, in this case, the students at a Catholic boarding school in Alaska have been voluntarily sent there by parents or well-meaning outsiders in the 1960s. The book covers the years of 1960 to 1964 through the voices of several children attending the school: Luke, Chickie, Sonny, Donna, and Amiq. While some of the voices are stronger and m ...more

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