40 Fun Facts About Julie of the Wolves

What name does Julie give the big black leader of the wolf pack in Julie of the Wolves?

Amaroq follows an Iñupiaq word for wolf, though a teacher from Barrow later noted that the proper spelling is amaguq.

Which American nature writer won a 1973 children's book prize for Julie of the Wolves?

Jean Craighead George wrote more than a hundred books for children and worked in the 1940s as a Washington Post reporter.

In Julie of the Wolves, which California city is home to the pen pal Julie sets out to reach?

San Francisco reaches Julie through letters about television and sports cars, and her plan is to walk to the coast and sail there.

How does the wolf pack's leader die as Julie nears the coast in Julie of the Wolves?

Shot from an airplane by hunters, the leader is killed, and the black pup she loves is badly wounded by the same gunfire.

Which award, won a year earlier by Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, went to Julie of the Wolves in 1973?

The Newbery Medal honours the year's most distinguished American children's book, and the author said it meant more to her than a Nobel.

Researching Julie of the Wolves in Barrow, its author learned what term for a pack's dominant mated pair?

Alphas, later DNA studies showed, are strangers who meet and mate, while their grown pups stay on to help raise the next litter.

In Julie of the Wolves, which traditional name does Julie reclaim when she walks out onto the tundra?

Miyax is what the author calls her while she lives with the wolves, and the switch back to Julie in the last sentence is itself the ending.

In Julie of the Wolves, what posture must Julie keep before the wolf pack will accept her?

On her hands and knees is the only way in, a rule the author learned from scientists: wild wolves will not approach a standing human.

Barrow, the town Julie flees in Julie of the Wolves, holds which distinction among United States cities?

The northernmost city in the country, Barrow voted in 2016 to restore its Iñupiaq name, Utqiaġvik.

In Julie of the Wolves, what is the name of Julie's father, a great hunter she believes is dead?

Kapugen gives his name to the book's third part, and people in Mekoryuk know him by an English name, Charlie.

What is the name of the California pen pal whose letters tempt Julie south in Julie of the Wolves?

Amy gets a second life in the 1994 sequel, where Julie gives the name to a newborn wolf pup.

Which wolf turns on Julie and steals the backpack holding her supplies in Julie of the Wolves?

Jello pays for the theft: Julie later finds him dead, killed by the pack's leader for turning against her.

In Julie of the Wolves, what makes Julie run away from Barrow onto the open tundra?

Her husband attacks her after other boys tease him about the marriage, and she packs her things and leaves at once.

What is the name of the boy Julie marries at thirteen in an arranged match in Julie of the Wolves?

Daniel is the son of Naka, her father's old friend, and the two men had agreed the match years before as her way out of Mekoryuk.

After her pet bird dies at the end of Julie of the Wolves, what does Julie do?

She heads back to her father, an open ending the author said means Julie accepts him and the changes reaching her people.

Why is nine-year-old Julie taken from her father to live in Mekoryuk in Julie of the Wolves?

To attend school, as the law required: her aunt arrives with the paperwork, and Julie's years of learning from her father end overnight.

After her mother dies in Julie of the Wolves, where does Julie's father carry her to live?

A seal camp is where he teaches her the old ways of living off the land, years she remembers in vivid colour.

In Julie of the Wolves, which intruder does the pack's leader drive away when it comes too close to Julie?

A grizzly bear wanders too near her shelter and the lead wolf sees it off, a sign the pack now counts Julie as one of its own.

Why has Julie believed her father dead since her years in Mekoryuk in Julie of the Wolves?

He vanished at sea on a hunting trip in his kayak, and searchers found only pieces of the boat washed ashore.

Lost and starving in Julie of the Wolves, why does Julie expect a wolf pack to feed her?

They once fed her father, a story that convinces her she can ask for food too if she learns their signals.

Which coastal settlement is Julie trekking toward, hoping to board a ship, in Julie of the Wolves?

Point Hope puzzled one Barrow teacher who reviewed the book, since the ship Julie hopes to catch there also calls at Barrow.

Which stern aunt takes Julie away to Mekoryuk and disapproves of her friends in Julie of the Wolves?

Martha is drawn as distant and cold, and Julie never feels like more than an unwanted guest in her house.

After the pack's leader dies in Julie of the Wolves, what does Julie make to keep his spirit close?

A carved totem of the wolf is one of several comforts Julie makes for herself; she also decorates her shelters, dances and sings.

The middle part of Julie of the Wolves, covering Julie's life before the tundra, takes what form?

A flashback fills the middle third, a device the author had already used in her earlier runaway story about Sam Gribley.

Which 1959 novel about runaway Sam Gribley did the Julie of the Wolves author write first?

My Side of the Mountain sends Sam to live inside a hollow tree in the Catskills with a falcon named Frightful.

The Barrow trip that inspired Julie of the Wolves began as wolf research for which magazine?

Reader's Digest was where her wolf article was headed, and the research put her and her son Luke among scientists at an Arctic laboratory.

Flying into Barrow, what did the Julie of the Wolves author's son spot that inspired the book?

A small girl out alone on the tundra looked awfully little to be there, her son remarked, and the image stayed with the author.

Julie of the Wolves mentions the ulo, a tool still sold as a souvenir across Alaska; what is it?

A woman's knife, the ulo handles everything from skinning animals to cutting a child's hair and trimming blocks of snow.

Which part of a caribou kill does Julie prize as the richest food in Julie of the Wolves?

The liver holds the most nutrients, and Julie follows tradition by eating it and lifting her arms to the sun in thanks.

In Julie of the Wolves, what makes a hunter wealthy in the old sense Julie respects?

Intelligence, courage and love are the riches the old ways counted, which is why Julie calls the pack's leader a wealthy wolf.

Which village, home to the young hunter Atik, is where Julie finds her father alive in Julie of the Wolves?

Kangik is home to Atik, whose praise for his teacher tips Julie off, and it is where she finds electric lamps glowing in her father's house.

Whom has Julie's father married by the time Julie finds him in Julie of the Wolves?

Ellen and the modern house she shares with him, electric stove included, leave Julie unsure her father still lives by the old ways.

In Julie of the Wolves, who is a gussak, a word traced to the Russian for Cossack?

A white person is a gussak in Yupik; a Barrow teacher noted that the Iñupiat of the far north say tanik instead.

When does the 1994 sequel Julie pick up the story left open by Julie of the Wolves?

Ten minutes later is all the gap the story allows, although its author waited more than twenty years to write the sequel.

In the 1994 sequel to Julie of the Wolves, Julie's father shoots wolves to protect which village herd?

Musk oxen put Julie and her father on opposite sides, and the sequel follows her struggle to protect the pack that saved her.

Which artist, later a Caldecott winner for Owl Moon, illustrated the first edition of Julie of the Wolves?

John Schoenherr also painted the original cover art for Frank Herbert's Dune.

In Julie of the Wolves, what kind of bird is Tornait, the lost companion Julie adopts on her trek?

A young plover as lost as she is, Tornait is tiny and on his own, which makes him a kindred spirit for Julie.

In Julie of the Wolves, what do the adult wolves feed Julie, just as they would a pup?

Regurgitated meat is how wolves feed pups too young to hunt, and Julie earns her share by copying the way the litter behaves.

A 2004 workshop production in Westchester, New York turned Julie of the Wolves into what kind of show?

A stage musical with a script by Barbara Dana and music by Chris Kubie reached the workshop stage, and the author called it breathtaking.

On which Bering Sea island, home to the village of Mekoryuk, does Julie grow up in Julie of the Wolves?

Nunivak is the second-largest island in the Bering Sea, and Mekoryuk is its only permanent settlement.