A Sled Dog for Moshi

The young Inuit child Moshi longs for a pet dog like the one owned by her friend Jessica. Moshi's father explains that the puppies that Nuna, their missing sled dog, is expecting are work dogs not playthings. While out walking, Moshi and Jessica are surprised by a sudden whiteout. Nuna finds the children and leads them to shelter in a small shed, where the dog is keeping her puppies. While the girls huddle with the pups, Nuna runs off, soon returning with rescuers. Praised by her father for thinking "like an Inuk" to survive the snow, Moshi happily chooses a pup--deciding she would rather have a sled dog than a pet.

Moshi wants a pet dog like her friend Jessica has, but in Iqaluit, Alaska, dogs are used for racing or pulling sleds, not as pets.

The young Inuit child Moshi longs for a pet dog like the one owned by her friend Jessica. Moshi's father explains that the puppies that Nuna, their missing sled dog, is expecting are work dogs not playthings. While out walking, Moshi and Jessica are surprised by a sudden whiteout. Nuna finds the children and leads them to shelter in a small shed, where the dog is keeping her puppies. While the girls huddle with the pups, Nuna runs off, soon returning with rescuers. Praised by her father for thinking "like an Inuk" to survive the snow, Moshi happily chooses a pup--deciding she would rather have a sled dog than a pet.

Children's Literature

Tension is thick as arctic snow in this riveting picture book. Two young girls are caught out on the tundra in a whiteout - a blizzard so blinding, so dense that all sense of direction is lost. Jessica is a transplant from New York City, but Moshi is a native of Iquluit and remembers all the survival techniques that her father has taught her. Her sharp skills and a lead sled dog save the girls from the deathtrap of the cold. The Inuit artist has created foggy watercolors that chill the pages and add frosting to a sweet piece of fiction.

Germaine Arnaktauyok is renowned for her talents as an illustrator and master printmaker. The daughter of carvers Therese Nattok and Isidore Iytok, she started to draw on any material available while still a young girl in Igloolik. When she was sent to residential school at Chesterfield Inlet at age nine, she met a nun who gave her art lessons. Germaine sold her first painting at age 11.

Germaine's image of an Inuit drum dancer now appears on the 2000 edition of the Canadian $2 coin.