Reading List for Alaska Home-Transition Sensitivity Unit

7/31/16

This booklist would be for an 8th grade unit on cultural awareness. Here in Sitka, we have both a
boarding school and a US Coast Guard base. As such, local students are constantly meeting new
classmates who come from different and unfamiliar cultures. If Sitka were a larger city this
wouldn’t be all that unique, but the small size and the level of connectedness that our community
has makes new students very ‘visible’. I think it is vital, especially for those entering high
school, that our students are given some sense of familiarity with these new cultures. And to help
them imagine what life must be like for these students who are going through such a dramatic
life-change by moving here.

It is my hope that this reading list will help my students empathize with, understand, and connect
with their current and future classmates who come from different cultures. Due to the length of
many of these books and the time it would take the average 8th grade student to read them, as
well as the importance of the subject, this unit is not meant to be a focused/intensive unit that
occurs over a week or two. Rather, this unit should be ongoing. Starting at the beginning of the
year and continuing with each week of school. Discussions about cultural awareness and the
information gleaned from these books should be applied to activities throughout the school year.
Students should walk away with a sense of understanding and a willingness to reach out to, and
embrace, these new arrivals.

Reading List for Students:

 Rogers, Jean. Goodbye, My Island. Illus by Rie Munoz. Greenwillow Books. 1983. 85
Pg. Intermediate.
 Kantner, Seth. Shopping for Porcupine. Milkweed Editions. 2008. 240 Pg. Young
Adult/Adult. (Read only the first 7 chapters. Pg. 1-101)
 Edwardson, Debby D. My Name Is Not Easy. Marshall Cavendish. 2011. 248 Pg.
Intermediate/Young Adult.
 Hitchcock, Bonnie-Sue. The Smell of Other People’s Houses. Wendy Lamb/Random.
2016. 240 Pg. Intermediate/Young Adult.
 Rahm, Julie. Military Kids Speak: Celebrating the Way You Think about Being a Military
Kid. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. 2011. 268 Pg. Young Adult. (While
not specifically about Alaska, this book does give insight into the lives of children from
military families like those of the USCG base here in Sitka. Read only chapters 1-5)

Additional Reading for Teachers:

 Banks, J.A. and McGee Banks, C.A. Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives.
8th ed. Hoboken, NJ.: John Wiley and Sons, 2013. Print.
 Landsman, Julie. White Teachers / Diverse Classrooms. Stylus, LLC., 2011. Print.
 Wayne, Au. Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for Racial and Cultural
Justice. 2nd ed. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Rethinking Schools, Limited. 2009. 285-90. Print.

(For each of these texts, read only select chapters pertaining to the importance of, and strategies
for, building cultural awareness)
Annotations:

Children’s Fiction: Historical Home, Family, Tradition, Change

Rogers, Jean. Goodbye, My Island. Illus by Rie Munoz. Greenwillow Books. 1983. 85 Pg. Intermediate.

Goodbye, My Island chronicles the final winter of living on King Island for young Esther Atoolik. Sadly,
Esther has watched her childhood friends and home slowly diminish as they’ve transitioned to the “new
ways” of the world. With so little left, it seems that Esther too is destined to leave her home behind.
Told from the perspective of young Esther, the story manages to be both melancholy and warm at the
same time. Jean Rogers paints a vivid picture of King Island life in a way that makes you want to live
there too.

AK: Auklet, Beluga, Eskultea, Gussuk, Mukluk, Muktuk, Oomiak

Activity: Have students journal about how they would feel about spending a winter away from home on
King Island. Like Dixon, what questions would you have for Esther and Lewis?

Non-Fiction: Autobiography Wilderness, Growth, Changing-of-times

Kantner, Seth. Shopping for Porcupine. Milkweed Editions. 2008. 240 Pg. Young Adult/Adult.

Shopping for Porcupines is the autobiography of Seth Kantner. From his days growing up in a sod hut in
the Alaskan wilderness, to his adulthood, finding his way in a rapidly changing world. I believe the title,
“shopping for porcupines” is meant to say something about the blending of old ways and new. Retaining
a wilderness lifestyle despite technology changing the ways we live. Kantner paints a vivid portrait of the
rugged, yet beautiful life that is living in the Alaskan wilderness.

AK: Anatkuq, Niqipiaq, Paniqtuq, Paatnaq, Quaq, Ugruk, Umiaq

Activity: Have students make a journal entry about some of the technologies that have changed
throughout their own lives? How have these technologies effected the ways in which you live? What do
you foresee in the future?

Children’s Fiction: Historical Culture, Family, Prejudice, Growth

Edwardson, Debby D. My Name Is Not Easy. Marshall Cavendish. 2011. 248 Pg. Intermediate/Young
Adult

My Name Is Not Easy follows several years in the childhoods of several children in rural Alaskan who
leave their homes in order to attend a Catholic boarding school. The story explores the difficulties they
face in an unfamiliar and unwelcoming world, as well as the bond they create with each other. My Name
Is Not Easy reads like a collection of memoirs and really brings you into the lives of its narrators. It’s a
very powerful read that gives you a glimpse of what life might be like for people who did and still do
travel to boarding schools in order to get an education.

AK: Maktak, Aaka, Taqtuk, Tulugaq, Eskimo, Indian, “Rasing Eyebrows”, Operation Plowshare

Activity: First in journals, and then as a class, have students highlight some of the challenges faced by
students who must travel away from home in order to attend high school. What are some of the
privileges you have that they don’t? What are things that you can do to ease this burden and make
these students feel more comfortable?

Children’s Fiction: Historical Youth, Family, Friendship, Love, Connection

Hitchcock, Bonnie-Sue. The Smell of Other People’s Houses. Wendy Lamb/Random. 2016. 240 Pg.
Intermediate/Young Adult.

Following the lives of several teenagers in early-statehood Alaska, The Smell of Other People’s Houses is
a story of youth, hardship, love, and fate. Through life and death; growing up in broken homes to finding
family; from betrayal of love to finding it again; from hatred to forgiveness; and in a way that makes this
huge world seem so small, this story has it all. Initially appearing to be a collection of unrelated tales, the
author is able to slowly bridge the characters into a climax that feels like you’re watching universes
collide in the most beautiful way. She somehow manages to tell this realistic story in a way that makes
life seem almost mystical, and it just feels right.

AK: Fish Camp, Alaska Marine Highway, Troller, Ulu Knife, Alaska Bush

Activity: Have students respond in their journals to one of these questions: Why do you think Dumpling
finds it difficult to converse with the priest? What is the reason for the unspoken animosity between
Dora and Ruth? Why did Alyce feel like she would be “betraying” her father by expressing her desire to
audition? Surely losing Sam is worse than being turned around – why doesn’t Hank ask for help finding
his brother?