Book cover of Blessing's Bead

Blessing’s Bead

ISBN

9781643795768

Publisher & Publication Year

Tu Books, 2022

Publisher's Book Page

Author

Debby Dahl Edwardson

Author's Website 

Illustrator

Nasugraq Rainey Hopson (Inupiaq)

Synopsis

Summary

Nutaaq and her older sister, Aaluk, are on a great journey, sailing from a small island off the coast of Alaska to the annual trade fair. There, a handsome young Siberian wearing a string of cobalt blue beads watches Aaluk “the way a wolf watches a caribou, never resting.” Soon his actions―and other events more horrible than Nutaaq could ever imagine―threaten to shatter her Iñupiaq world. Seventy years later, Nutaaq’s greatgranddaughter, Blessing, is on her own journey, running from the wreckage of her life in Anchorage to live in a remote Arctic village with a grandmother she barely remembers. In her new home, unfriendly girls whisper in a language she can’t understand, and Blessing feels like an outsider among her own people. Until she finds a cobalt blue bead―Nutaaq’s bead―in her grandmother’s sewing tin. The events this discovery triggers reveal the power of family and heritage to heal, despite seemingly insurmountable odds.

Notable Achievements

Junior Library Guild selection; Booklist’s Top 10 Historical Fiction for Young Adults, 2010; Booklist’s Top 10 First Novels for Young Adults, 2010; ILA Notable Books for a Global Society; YALSA/ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults

Reviews

Kirkus: "Edwardson treads an elegant line in her perspective: Blessing is both an insider—Iñupiaq—and an outsider still learning exactly what that means. It’s a perspective that allows any reader in, and they’ll learn much about the power of stories and names and how to use them both."

Booklist: "Two narratives, one historical, one nearly contemporary, make up this beautiful first novel, set among Iñupiaq Eskimos in Alaska’s far northern territories... Concrete and symbolic references to the transforming power of language, names, and stories link the two narratives, but it’s the Nutaaq’s rhythmic, indelible voices—both as steady and elemental as the beat of a drum or a heart—that will move readers most. A unique, powerful debut."

Educator Guide

This guide, created by Lee & Low Books, includes background information, pre and post-reading questions, vocabulary, and interdisciplinary activities.

Link to Guide

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