The Dreaded Ogress of the Tundra by N. Christopher
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20361/G2V31TAbstract
Christopher, Neil. The Dreaded Ogress of the Tundra. Iqaluit: Inhabit Media, 2015. Print
Amautaliit are giant ogresses who eat small children. They roam the Arctic tundra looking for unsupervised children such as orphans or those who have wandered away from camp. They sneak up on the children, capture and carry them away in their disgusting baskets containing rotting seaweed and giant bugs. These stories have two themes. First, they are cautionary tales designed to keep children from wandering away from camps and villages. Second, they usually show the children using their ingenuity or ancient magic to escape the not-too-smart amautaliit.
This is an updated and revised version of Christopher’s 2009 volume, Stories of the Amautalik, which contains versions of the two stories presented in this work. However, this edition of the book is more like a junior handbook to amautaliit (plural of amautalik). While this book has many illustrations which are appropriately dark, scary and creepy, there is much more text than one usually finds in an Inhabit Media book. At least half of the pages are full text and like Stories of the Amautalik, the reading level is high for young children. The book includes a seven-page introduction to amautaliit, which describes who these creatures are, their clothing, their baskets, their caves and how they hunt small children. At the end of the book there is an “Other Ogres and Ogresses” section, which gives single page, illustrated descriptions of similar creatures, including a giant spider that assumes a human-like form.
Even though this is a revision of an earlier work that many libraries will have, the expanded content would make it a useful addition to libraries with children’s collections, and particularly to academic libraries that collect works on Arctic myths and legends.
Highly Recommended: 4 stars out of 4
Reviewer: Sandy Campbell
Sandy 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.
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