Book Review (two books today!) - Lost In The Barrens and its sequel

My 10yo is finally old enough to listen to this excellent classic book from my own Canadian childhood, and boy was he invested in it!   It's a story of survival and courage and friendship that really did stand the test of time well.  Which is not to say there aren't aspects of the story that prove challenging, because there are.  The casual racisms of writing set in the mid-century are present in abundance, and if you are unfamiliar with where to skip, or alter terminology, or stop to explain, then some judicious pre-reading might be in order.

However, I think the struggle to edit is worth it, because rarely have I come across such a fantastic example of what a 10yo boy who was stretching his wings would care to read.

Jaime McNair and his Cree friend, Awasin Meewasin, join a hunt with the neighbouring Chippawa tribe in the forbidden Barrenlands, where Jaime's impetuous nature gets them separated from their companions.  They end up spending the winter in the Barrens, and the story gives a good mix of survival and triumph type storylines along with extra adventures that don't play primary rolls in the narrative.  The book ends with their safe return to the forests and their families.

And then, of course, if you read Lost in the Barrens you are left with all sorts of unanswered questions.  What happens to Peetyuk?  Whose grave did the boys pillage?  Do they return to the barrenland homestead?

Well, worry not, because the sequel can answer two of those questions.  Cough.

The sequel is more ethically challenging than the first book, and although (again) I think the adventure story, history, writing, etc. are worth having to stop and explain why we don't use a phrase anymore or having to skip several paragraphs, I can understand someone stopping after book one.  Jamie is less kind, here.  The law is evaded.  There are sad, and sometimes scary legends.  The racism is more apparent in Mowat's descriptions of the Inuit, and so forth.  There was only one scene I skipped entirely, when a young lady dismisses the unwelcome attentions of a man, although I changed how Peetyuk spoke and skipped the more gruesome bits of some legends.

In return, there is a thrilling, fast moving account of adventure and excitement and impending adulthood that offers children a glimpse into history and the feeling that they, too, can be the courageous heroes and save the people from ruin.