Little Whale

August 1, 2016
Kéet, the 10-year-old son of a Tlingit clan leader on the coast of what is now Alaska, accompanies his father on a sea voyage to another clan’s village in a story based on a real-life journey that Peretrovich’s grandfather took part in as a boy. Early chapters follow Kéet’s efforts to rescue a whale trapped in fishing lines, left by the “unusually pale” strange men who have been appearing in the area, before moving on to the sea excursion, which ends with a celebratory peace ceremony between the clans. Peretrovich includes a wealth of details about Tlingit culture and the community’s ties to the sea in this rousing historical adventure. Ages 8–12.

June 15, 2016
Eager to prove himself, an Alaska Native child helps his father free a baby whale from a net, then stows away to join an expedition to a distant village.Peratrovich bases his tale on an event from his Tlingit grandfather's youth, preceding the narrative with a glossary and introductory descriptions of the Tlingit moiety system and village life that both are generalized and include some contradictory information. In the story proper, when 10-year-old Keet goes fishing for chaatl (halibut) with his father, he cuts a yaay (whale--the exact species is not indicated) from a floating net made of strange materials, probably by the "pale people." The following day, he stows away aboard one of a fleet of canoes dispatched to another village in the wake of an unspecified "wrong" to a clan member. The whales reciprocate the earlier good deed by helping the canoes through a storm. Discovered, Keet gets a long lecture from his father--who then goes on to face a hostile reception at their destination and settle the dispute not with violence but with talk and ceremonial exchange of gifts. In a concluding note, the author confides that the whale encounters are his own invention and never does get around to explaining what made the titular canoe the "last" one. A spare handful of murky illustrations offer at best hazy impressions of what that canoe, ceremonial headgear, and longhouse village looked like. Stronger at conveying a sense of Tlingit life than at spinning a tale that will appeal to general audiences. (map) (Historical fiction. 9-11)

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