A few weeks ago, Colby Sharp spoke at a school library conference I attended in Daytona Beach. Colby is a 5th grade teacher in a small town in Michigan. He has co-authored books for educators, as well as the blog Nerdy Book Club. Books, reading, and teaching children are his professional passions. Librarians love his book lists, and his way of incorporating reading into every subject he teaches; I believe that each child in his classroom is truly blessed to have him as a teacher. He began his FAME (Florida Association for Media in Education) talk with what inspired him to read as a child. Like so many children he did not take to reading right away. He tells the story of how he encountered the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and how that changed his life and his world. I find myself going back to Colby’s story often these last few weeks as I consider what it means to be a children’s librarian and how to ignite that desire to read in my students. It is easy to get lost in the politics of education; to give up rather than to keep trying. Listening to Colby speak was a reminder of why I do what I do, and of what is truly important in my professional world.
In January of 2022, Gary Paulsen has a new book slated to be published – Northwind. Gary died in mid-October of this year at the age of 82. From what I read about Gary, his life was full of adventure, but also incredible early hardship. I am grateful for the gift of words that he gave to our world, and I’m grateful for the hope and inspiration he gave to so many young people throughout the years; something, it seems, lacked in his own early years. I had the pleasure of receiving an advance readers copy of Northwind, and I finished it yesterday.
Much like Hatchet, Northwind is a survival adventure story. Leif is an orphan, raised on the wharves and ships of the Nordic coast. He is indentured to the seafaring life. A twist of fate sends him to a remote fishing village, left with other sailors to gather and dry fish to be transported for sale. For some unknown reason the few sailors in the village are forgotten, until one day a death ship drifts in and out of their remote bay, leaving behind the menace of traumatic disease. Young Leif finds himself alone, at the edge of death in the Nordic Ocean wilderness. His savior – Old Carl, told Leif to leave their village and never return; to continually head north, and Old Carl provided a small bundle to help Leif on his journey; a blanket, a small quantity of dried fish, spear points and fishhooks, as well as a canoe and paddles. Young Carl was placed in the canoe with Leif, and both suffer from the disease that has struck their remote fishing village. Young Carl succumbs to the disease, and it’s a fluke that Leif barely survives. Northwind is a lonely story filled with the beauty of extreme northern waterways, of fear and adventure, but most of all the glorious wonder of nature and what it means to be alive. Leif discovers that being alone does not necessarily mean being lonely, and despite the hardships he encounters, he learns about freedom and joy of being alive in unexpected moments.
Northwind inspired me. It’s been on my mind since I finished it. A young boy in the wild, alone – nothing but a small canoe and some meager possessions. He encounters hunger, bears, whales, dolphins – wild whirlpools, strange blue ice and he continually battles the challenge of finding food to eat. There are moments when he discovers true joy and peace and believes everything might be alright; then, along would come another set-back. I like the prose style of writing, and the shorter chapters with plenty of white space will not easily intimidate young readers. I consider this book to be a truly fitting final adventure given to the world by Gary Paulsen.
For me, the inspiration is in the attitude of this young boy. He is afraid, often, but he does not allow it to consume him. He learns lessons from each hardship he encounters, and he adapts these lessons into doing a task better in the future. Leif becomes fatalistic; he learns that whatever is meant to be, will, and his worry will not change anything. It’s a hard and beautiful lesson to learn, but the most important message in this book, to me, is the hope it instills. We can do nothing in life without hope and belief that just around the next bend in the river is the next best thing in life.
