Bird Girl & the Man Who Followed the Sun

Velma Wallis, author of the award-winning TWO OLD WOMEN, brings forth another story from the Athabaskans of Alaska. In a cold, harsh country where the sun disappears for much of the long winter, Indians and Eskimos struggle against nature and one another to survive. Against this stark landscape, Wallis skillfully interweaves the stories of two rebels. Bird Girl, an independent young Indian woman, defies her family's expectations by refusing to become a traditional wife and mother. Instead she chooses to brave life on her own as a hunter, risking starvation, isolation, and attacks by her people's enemies, the Eskimos. Along the way she meets Daagoo, a restless young dreamer who leaves behind his homeland to journey souht in search of the legendary Land of the Sun. Readers will be captivated by this profound myth about two young people who wander far from their culture's deeply held traditions and eventually must find a way to come home again.