Wild Eggs: a tale of Arctic Egg Collecting by S. Napayok – Short

• Published in: The Deakin Review of Children's Literature
• Main Author: Campbell, Sandy
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Alberta Libraries 2016
• Subjects: Arctic; Nunavut; Yellowknife; inuit; inuktitut; Iqaluit
• Online Access: http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/deakinreview/article/view/27080; https://doi.org/10.20361/G24S4B

Napayok – Short, Suzie. Wild Eggs: A Tale of Arctic Egg Collecting. Illus. Jonathan Wright. Iqaluit: Inhabit Media, Inc., 2015. Print.Wild duck eggs are a traditional food for Inuit people. This book is about a little girl, Akuluk, from Yellowknife who visits her grandparent in Nunavut and goes with them to gather duck eggs. This is a modern story that is told factually. Akuluk arrives in an aircraft, is picked up in a taxi van and her grandfather uses an all-terrain vehicle to go out onto the land. It is also a story that teaches traditional ways. Inuit words, such as munniit (eggs) and palaugaaq (bannock) are explained and appear in a pronunciation guide at the end of the book. The traditional ways, such as never taking nests that have more than four eggs in them, are explained as Akuluk’s grandfather teaches her.The text is overprinted on Jonathan Wright’s artwork. Parts of his pictures are quite clear and detailed, while others are suggestive and indistinct. This style works particularly well for the “almost invisible” caribou, “his brown and white fur match[ing] the rocks around him”.Wild Eggs is a clearly-written work that incorporates Inuit traditional knowledge with ease. The book is also available in Inuktitut and is recommended for school and public libraries and particularly for libraries that collect polar children’s literatureHighly Recommended: 4 stars out of 4Reviewer: Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.