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My Name Is Not Easy

by Debby Dahl Edwardson, Nick Podehl (Goodreads Author) (Narrator), Amy Rubinate (Narrator)

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 552 ratings · 133 reviews

Luke knows his I´nupiaq name is full of sounds white people can’t say. He knows he’ll have to leave it behind when he and his brothers are sent to boarding school hundreds of miles from their Arctic village.

At Sacred Heart School things are different. Instead of family, there are students - Eskimo, Indian, White - who line up on different sides of the cafeteria like there...more

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Published February 20th 2012 by Brilliance Corporation (first published September 1st 2011)

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Apr 07, 2013 Christy Rosso rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Christy Rosso
Genre: Historical Fiction
Edwardson, D. (2011). My name is not easy. Tarrytown, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish.
Format: Print
Selection process: NoveList
http://web.ebscohost.com
Luke Aaluk states: “My name is not easy” (Edwardson, p. 3, 2011). As an Ińupiaq Luke knows that his true name could not be pronounced by others outside of his Alaskan Native tribe, and readers never learn it in this story. Luke and his younger brothers Bunna and Isaac leave their Alaskan village to attend Sacred Hear...more Christy Rosso
Genre: Historical Fiction
Edwardson, D. (2011). My name is not easy. Tarrytown, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish.
Format: Print
Selection process: NoveList
http://web.ebscohost.com
Luke Aaluk states: “My name is not easy” (Edwardson, p. 3, 2011). As an Ińupiaq Luke knows that his true name could not be pronounced by others outside of his Alaskan Native tribe, and readers never learn it in this story. Luke and his younger brothers Bunna and Isaac leave their Alaskan village to attend Sacred Heart Boarding School in this touching story Edwardson based on her husband’s family history (Edwardson, p. 247, 2011).
The story is told through the voices of five students: Luke, Chickie Snow, Sonny George, Amiq Aamaugak, and Donna Anaivik. The school is harshly led by a Catholic priest, and Native culture is forbidden. Luke’s youngest brother Isaac is taken away by a priest and illegally adopted in another state. Eskimo and Native Indian students segregate themselves and the boys engage in bitter rivalries. Despite the loss of family and the feelings of despair that threaten everyone at Sacred Heart, there are warm and humorous events, such as the romance between Luke’s brother Bunna and another student, and the Betty Crocker coupon drive for a new bus. One morning army doctors arrive to administer sinister medical tests. Led by Sonny and Amiq, students’ attitudes begin to change that day, and rivalries are gradually set aside.
Edwardson creates an authentic picture of little-known American history. In 1960’s Alaska village high schools were not yet required by law, and students often traveled hundreds of miles to boarding schools to receive an education (Edwardson, p. 245, 2011). Edwardson’s book portrays a time period in which civil rights activists were speaking out against discrimination and protests were occurring in our country. Her book depicts the conflicts that arise at Sacred Heart, the students’ solidarity and eventual form of protest.
Highly Recommend.

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Jan 08, 2013 Kirsten Kowalewski rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, historical-fiction

This is a unique book. It's told from the perspective of several teens, but I don't think it is necessarily a YA read. It takes place in the 1960s in a Catholic boarding school for Alaskan Indians and Eskimos. It's kind of a patchwork, and jumps from one thing to another. Politics, which often seem far away, become very personal here as one character sees his uncle's photo in the paper for an act of civil disobedience, military intervention directly affects several students, and nuclear destruct...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abusive-relationships, alcohol, civil-rights, community, cultural-identity, death, families, faith, friendship, languages, nbgs2012, names, rural-life, school, social-activists, social-justice, travel

Readers familiar with the boarding schools to which many Native American children were forced to go will have some awareness of the context for this book. However, in this case, the students at a Catholic boarding school in Alaska have been voluntarily sent there by parents or well-meaning outsiders in the 1960s. The book covers the years of 1960 to 1964 through the voices of several children attending the school: Luke, Chickie, Sonny, Donna, and Amiq. While some of the voices are stronger and m...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Carmen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A must-read! A historical fiction riveted with emotion, action, details and unimaginable truths.

From the first chapter, I felt invested in the lives of the three Eskimo children, Luke, Bunna and Isaac (ages 10, 8, 5) who have never been away from family and must attend a Catholic boarding school, hundreds of miles from home. Talk about extreme culture shock not to mention the homesickness these kids felt.

I quivered at times reading this book and my heart ached. I had no idea that back in the 1...more

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Jun 29, 2012 Librarymouse rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was quite happy when I found this book, as this is a subject that really interests me! I've read historical accounts, so I was excited to find a novel.

As for the book itself, I enjoyed it. I'm not normally a fan of the each-chapter-is-told-by-a-different-character trope, but I feel that for the most part, it worked here. I do wish the characters' voices had been a little more distinct from each other; often, I felt that if I hadn't seen the name at the start of the chapter, I wouldn't have kn...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Jocelyn marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, next, liberation

"Award-winning Barrow author caught in squeeze between bookstores, Amazon"
Hannah Heimbuch | The Arctic Sounder | Mar 18, 2012

Barrow author Debby Dahl Edwardson joined an elite group last year when her youth novel, “My Name Is Not Easy,” was named a finalist for the National Book Award. Just a few short months afterwards, she finds herself a bystander as her book is caught in the push-pull of corporate competition.
Barnes & Noble announced recently it would no longer stock the book in its stor...more

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Mar 05, 2012 LJ rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Debby Dahl Edwardson married into the culture she writes about, but that doesn't matter. This book clearly evokes the life of young indiginous Americans who pursued their higher education in white boarding schools in the 1960's. The strangeness they felt and their status as lower class outsiders is palpable. The story is set in Alaska and its main character is Aamaugak, who goes by the name Luke to make things easier on those nonaround him. At the start of the story, Aamaugak and his two brother...more Debby Dahl Edwardson married into the culture she writes about, but that doesn't matter. This book clearly evokes the life of young indiginous Americans who pursued their higher education in white boarding schools in the 1960's. The strangeness they felt and their status as lower class outsiders is palpable. The story is set in Alaska and its main character is Aamaugak, who goes by the name Luke to make things easier on those nonaround him. At the start of the story, Aamaugak and his two brothers are headed on a plane to go to Sacred Heart parochial boarding school. Aamaugak, or "Luke" is supposed to look after his two brothers, but the first thing that happens is that his little brother Issac gets sent away to a foster home without his mother's knowledge or permission. Luke feels tremendously guilty about this but there is nothing he can do about it. He and his brother Bunna then go on alone to try to adjust to their new home where they are not allowed to speak their own language and must get used to the strange cafeteria food. Father Mullen heads up the school and he rules it with an iron fist, doling out brutal corporal punishment whenever he's defied. Not all the staff at Sacred Heart are as brutal. There's Father Flanagan, Sister Mary Kate and Sister Sarah,who seem to try to do their best by the students despite the cultural divide. Although the novel centers on Luke and Bunna, there's compelling secondary students: Chickie (Bunna gives her the nickname, "Snowbird"), Sonny, Amiq, Rose and Evelyn,Junior and Donna. We get to know them and their stories as well. The novel plays around with present and past tense and switches narrators too, but does it in a way that's not confusing once you're fully hooked on the book. Spoilers: In the end, Father Mullen gets swept away in a tsunami when there's an earthquake. This is not very satisfying because by the time it happens, we really hate Father Mullen. Bunna falls in-love with his "Snowbird" and Chickie, who starts out hating Bunna returns his affections. This happens right before Bunna returns home for the summer (without Luke) and his plane crashes. Luke gets Issac back by taking an article that a fellow student wrote and attaching a plea to find his brother. All the students stand by Luke when they sign affadavits that they take full responsiblity for publishing the article. There's a epilogue that has Luke and Issac back with their family which nicely finishes off the story.(less)

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Mar 01, 2012 M. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Historical fiction set in the early 1960's. Told from the perspective of 5 different students at the Sacred Heart Catholic boarding school in Alaska. Luke Aaluk and his brothers Bunna and Isaac, from a small, coastal Eskimo village, are sent to the school to get an education. Isaac, age 6, is too young and is immediately sent to board with a family in town. The others are not permitted to speak their home language, they are given unfamiliar food, and they are surrounded by priests and nuns, at l...more

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Feb 28, 2012 Erin Sterling rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: character, read-in-2012, story, teen-fiction, teen-historical

Wow, this is a pretty powerful book about a topic that I knew very little about (and is not often read about in history books): boarding schools for Native Alaskans in the 1960s. Before there was a law requiring Alaska to provide schools in every small town, children as young as 6 and 7 were sent to boarding schools far away. The book begins with 3 Eskimo brothers who are sent to a Catholic boarding school, where they meet the harsh Father Mullen, the young and forgiving Father Flanagan, the ste...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Wendy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-award-possibilities

It isn't surprising that this book was up for the National Book Award, and I expect to see it at Scott O'Dell time, too. The story is fascinating, giving us just enough of the life back on the tundra to tantalize, and never overexplaining to its readers the things that can be deducted. (One reviewer below complains because the author doesn't explain the difference between Indians and "Eskimos" [who are in conflict with each other at the boarding school], which the reviewer feels is particularly...more

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Dec 17, 2011 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, young-adult, made-me-cry

When I heard Debby Dahl Edwardson read from this novel at Books of Wonder, I thought, "Well, I know nothing about Eskimo culture, nor about Alaska, but WOW, the voice. I have to read this."

And having just read MY NAME IS NOT EASY, I have to say: The voice? Still extraordinary. The novel is narrated by a number of characters, all students at a Catholic boarding school in Alaska in the 1960s. Though perhaps the voices of the individual characters are not as distinct as one would ordinarily expect,...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Karin marked it as not-going-to-finish · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed-from-the-library, inuit, education, young-adult-fiction, historical-fiction, families, catholic-church

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 06, 2011 Deanna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Historical fiction--1960s, Alaska, Native Americans, siblings, school

I loved Edwardson's Blessings Beads a couple of years ago and looked forward to reading this newest novel.

In the opening chapter Luke Bunna, and Isaac are boarding a plane to go to Sacred Heart school outside Fairbanks, Alaska. The three brothers are Eskimo and have never left home or been on an airplane. Immediately Isaac is "taken" because he is too young to attend school. Luke and Bunna are distraught because their mother in...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Chris Murray rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: boy-book, ethnic, historical-fiction, realistic-fiction, ya

Summary:
Although readers may be familiar with the compulsory relocation of Native American children to boarding schools, where they were required to give up their language, their dress, their food, their religious beliefs, and even their names; there were other atrocities visited on them as this story of three Eskimo brothers makes clear. Luke, Bunna, and Isaac are sent to Sacred Heart Catholic boarding school, deep in the Alaskan interior and far from the icy waters and wide-open expanses of th...more Summary:
Although readers may be familiar with the compulsory relocation of Native American children to boarding schools, where they were required to give up their language, their dress, their food, their religious beliefs, and even their names; there were other atrocities visited on them as this story of three Eskimo brothers makes clear. Luke, Bunna, and Isaac are sent to Sacred Heart Catholic boarding school, deep in the Alaskan interior and far from the icy waters and wide-open expanses of their Inupiaq village far to the north. Before they can even unpack, the youngest brother, Isaac, is inexplicably whisked away in the school’s station wagon--adopted out, without the family’s permission, to a home in Texas. Luke and Bunna struggle to make their way in this foreign environment, which is fraught with tension between the white kids, the Indians, and the Eskimos. Only the Eskimo children, however, are singled out to swallow radioactive iodine-131 as part of military-sponsored research into cold weather tolerance. The story is told mainly from Luke’s point of view, with alternating chapters told by four classmates--Amiq, the outspoken leader of the Eskimo kids; Chickie, the whitest kid but still an outsider; introspective Junior; and quiet, intense Donna. With the passing years, they forge alliances, experience first loves, and gain strength to return home and make changes. An author’s note identifies the factual episodes behind this well-told, compassionate, and ultimately hopeful tale. Although there are certainly numerous books providing insight into this shameful aspect of America’s imperialism, this provides the unique perspective of Alaskan natives, as well as historically based incidents involving civil disobedience and “peaceful” uses of atomic bombs--all noteworthy discussion starters. 2011, Marshall Cavendish,, $17.99. Ages 10 to 15.

My Comments:

This is a boarding school story as well as an Alaska native story. The characters are good and there is an afterward by the author where she explains how she got this material. Most of it is real. This was a National Book Award finalist so I was expecting something great. It was good, the time period, setting and characters were interesting, but it didn't really WOW me.(less)

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Apr 30, 2012 Anna Bayerl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My Name is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson (April 22, 2012) Luke and his brothers are
sent off to Sacred Heart boarding school in Alaska. Luke is an Eskimo from the Alaskan tundra. The time is the early 1960s. When they arrive at the school the age of the youngest brother is questioned. Forgetting himself, Bunna, the middle brother, tells the truth, that Isaac is six years old. The old priest says he is too young (he needs to be seven) and sends him off to be adopted to a family in Texas. Stud...more

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Jan 09, 2012 TheBookSmugglers rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally published on The Book Smugglers

When I go off to Sacred Heart School, they’re gonna call me Luke because my Iñupiaq name is too hard. Nobody has to tell me this. I already know. I already know because when teachers try say our real names, the sounds always get caught in their throats, sometimes, like crackers. That’s how it was in kindergarten and in first, second, and third grade and that’s how it’s going to be at boarding school, too. Teachers only know how to say easy names, like m...more Originally published on The Book Smugglers

When I go off to Sacred Heart School, they’re gonna call me Luke because my Iñupiaq name is too hard. Nobody has to tell me this. I already know. I already know because when teachers try say our real names, the sounds always get caught in their throats, sometimes, like crackers. That’s how it was in kindergarten and in first, second, and third grade and that’s how it’s going to be at boarding school, too. Teachers only know how to say easy names, like my brother Bunna’s.

My name is not easy.

These are the opening lines of this carefully crafted novel that follows the story of a group of Iñupiaq, Native American and white children who are sent to a Catholic boarding school in Alaska in the 60s. Although some of the characters and events are inspired by the author’s husband’s childhood experiences, My Name is Not Easy is mostly a fictional account of a complex period in Alaska’s history. In the early 60s, Alaskan parents had to send their kids away to boarding schools where the children were introduced to and forced to practice new ways of life – eating completely different food than they are used to, learning a new belief system, forbidden to use their own language not to mention being torn apart from their family and everything they had ever known.

Luke, Chickie, Sonny, Amiq and Donna are students at Sacred Heart School and they all share the narrative to one extent or another. Stemming from different backgrounds – Luke and Amik are Iñupiaq; Sonny is Native American (not really clear from which tribe) ; and Donna and Chickie are white – each student has to navigate their formative years at school dealing with their own personal problems as well as adapting to the social life at Sacred Heart. Their story is a mix of heartbreak and hope. Luke is the main narrator, if you will, and his perspective frames the book – his are the opening and closing chapters and whose name is the one that is not easy to pronounce. He goes to school with his two younger brothers Bunna and Isaac, determined to look after them (as per their mother’s instructions) and his despair when Isaac is taken away because he was too young for the school is heartbreaking. Sonny and Amiq are opposing forces, each a leader of their own group, separated by their ethnicity, enemies until common foe unite them. Chickie and Donna, stubborn and quiet respectively, both equally observant.

From a storytelling perspective, the story is told in short chapters from the different characters’ point of view and this definitely gives the story a disjointed feel due to its very episodic rhythm. This is amplified by how each break in the story usually correlates to historical facts taking place between 1960 and 1964 (the Barrow Duck-in, the military using the kids as test subjects, the Good Friday Earthquake, so on and so forth) and in all honesty, it is a bit difficult to suspend disbelief on how this group experienced every single problem or event during that period. It is testament to the author’s competence and to the power of the story that this doesn’t matter in the end. Because what matter the most in My Name is not Easy are the characters, their beautifully rendered and ever evolving relationship with each other and with the world at large. These are kids that have been taken away from their family so it is not a surprise that they become a new sort of family facing whatever comes their way as a unified front. This main theme – of family, of union – actually sets up the grounds from which an important yet very uncomfortable discussion can stem from and how these hardships, this experience, as horrible as it was, was perhaps instrumental in forming the future leadership of the Alaskan peoples and in uniting them.

I feel that My name is not Easy is an important book and one that deserves its National Book Award nomination. But it is also a good, engaging book: one with a strong sense of setting and atmosphere (it is easy to feel the isolation that its characters feel); one that treats its characters with compassion and warmth (I appreciated how the author did not fall into the trap of completely stereotyping the nuns and priests who ran the school) and one that takes history and makes it relevant to regular people. Highly recommended. (less)

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Mar 24, 2012 Kathy Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This historical fiction story tells about a Inupiaq boy named Luke who was sent with his brothers to a Catholic boarding school from his home in the north of Alaska. It records the things that happened to these Native kids when they were forced to leave home for their educations. Almost immediately the youngest brother Isaac who is only six is taken from the others and sent away to be adopted by a family in Texas. Luke and Bunna, and even their families, have nothing to say about it.

This story...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Monica! rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: a-damn-dim-candle, dammit-author-stop-being-awesome, goodreads-made-me-do-it, iceberg-right-ahead, manly-man-man-man, read-in-2012, reasonably-realistic, so-what-the-hell-do-i-call-you, this-must-be-what-pain-feels-like

It is, perhaps, a negative quirk in my personality that I have no trouble writing for hours about books I hated, but when it comes to books I loved I find myself stalling over reviews.

I really, really liked My Name is not Easy. Debby Dahl Edwardson is clearly just *wildly* in love with her adopted homeland, and it shines through on every page—I still do not have a particular desire to wander the wilds of northern Alaska, but if any book was going to convince me it was a good idea, this would be...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Mariel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, pw-starred-review, social-value, national-book-award-finalist

This book touched my heart at times such that I felt like crying with the characters. The stories are fragmented and told from different points of views, but maybe that is how we perceive life as children and teenagers; focusing on episodes in our lives that shape who we are as adults. There is a place in the book where the main character in incapable to protect his brother from other adults when their parents are far away from them and that really touched my heart. How children are at the mercy...more

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Jun 21, 2012 MissSusie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio, reviewed, ya

This was a part of history I had never really heard about, how the native Alaskan children were sent away to catholic schools and were given easier names, a new language and taken away from everything they knew. This is a true story written as fiction, the forward explains why it is written as such. The story is told by different people the main 2 being Eskimo boy Luke & young white motherless Chickie a young girl from a Scandinavian background, they tell a very different yet similar story b...more This was a part of history I had never really heard about, how the native Alaskan children were sent away to catholic schools and were given easier names, a new language and taken away from everything they knew. This is a true story written as fiction, the forward explains why it is written as such. The story is told by different people the main 2 being Eskimo boy Luke & young white motherless Chickie a young girl from a Scandinavian background, they tell a very different yet similar story both coming from different backgrounds yet still taken away from all they know to be educated in the Catholic Boarding School.

However there is much more than just education going on at this school there are also some military experiments to test how Eskimo’s live in such cold but these tests are done with radiation and iodine- 131 and I’m sure their parents were never informed. There is also Luke’s little brother Isaac who is whisked away and adopted without consent and this is the 60’s not the 30’s. There are many tragedies along the way. There are other characters Junior, Amiq, Donna & Sonny they are white, Eskimo and Native American (it’s never really said what tribe) and how each of them is trying to find their way in the world without losing who they are.

I think this is a very important book that should be read in high school to get a feel of what Americans have done to each other as they try to Americanize the natives. It is important so that this kind of thing never happens again.

I could feel the anger of these kids, they were all treated as orphans when they weren’t they all had families even if they weren’t the greatest parents they were still alive. This story really touched me and I am very glad I read it.

The narration by, Amy Rubinate & Nick Podehl goes back and forth as we hear Luke & Chickie’s stories (they were the main two there were other stories too) both narrators are fantastic and make you feel the various emotions of these characters. Both narrators were new to me and I very much enjoyed their narration and will look for other books they have narrated!

I see why this book has won awards I think it is a book everyone should read especially if you are like me and this was a part of history you knew nothing about.

4 ½ Stars
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Jan 24, 2012 Ann Marie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

once again a book has opened my eyes to issues never introduced...I had no idea children in Alaska were sent away from their parents for school starting at the age of 7...how on earth did their mothers cope...
this story was difficult to get into...there were too many names - too many directions coming in at the same time...I never felt as a reader that I was in the story or watching it happen...it seemed as if no one subject was given more than a line or two...the cover states "an extraordinary...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Betty Jo Pritchett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked this book. From the first it appealed to me because I currently live in Alaska. I've heard about the boarding schools and some of the other horrible events in this story and was intrigued by a book written from the point of view of the children. I wish I could say that I was surprised at the way Alaskan Natives were treated. Still I was horrified. Some of these issues are still being ironed out in our present. Subsistence hunting and fishing is a big one. The book tells of a 'duck...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Tracey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, libraryread-idm, e-text, hist-fic

I picked this book up from the local library after finding out about it via the Kindle Daily Deal earlier this month - then I read several positive reviews of it here on GoodReads.

This novel is told from the viewpoint of several Native students at a Catholic boarding school in Alaska in the mid 1960's, primarily following Luke, an I'nupiaq Eskimo (whose real name is "full of sounds white people can't say") thru several years of school. The narrative switches up occasionally to Sonny, an Athabas...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Judy Desetti rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, civil-rights, historical-fiction, gr-5-8

This gives me lots to think about. There were so many things I was unaware of about Alaska, Eskimos, Indians, anything about their culture and history.

I liked the novel but it was hard to get started and understand the story. There were so many voices and it was hard for me to keep all the characters straight and get the larger understanding of the plot.

This story is about several students in a Catholic Boarding school in the interior of Alaska. They were taken away from family and their villa...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Heidi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya, read-2012

Siblings Luke, Bunna, and Isaac are sent to a Catholic-run boarding school in the early 1960s because their small Inupiaq village town doesn't have a school for them to attend. The clash of Indian, Eskimo, and white values is immediate and almost universally unkind or unjust toward non-whites. The title of the book refers to the fact that students were not allowed to use their Indian or Eskimo names, nor were they allowed to speak their native language. FIve characters tell the story over a five...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Patsi Trollinger rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've been on a tear lately reading books that take me to the heart of people who come from cultures and ethnic groups from my own. This story made me feel as if I understood, at least a little bit, what it would have been like to be a young teen boy of the Inupiaq people in northern Alaska in the 1960s. I'll call him Luke, the name he is given in a Catholic boarding school to replace his Inupiaq name that the school staff says is too hard to pronounce. As Luke explainss, "My name is not easy. My...more

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Nov 16, 2011 Kelly added it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-fiction, read-in-2011, could-not-finish

I made it roughly 100 pages before deciding it wasn't going to work.

So the set up is this: 1960s Alaska, a cast of Eskimos and Indians and White people in a Catholic boarding school. The tension is the racial inequality, the bringing together of so many back issues into one place. The problem, though, is in 100 pages, I'm so removed from the characters. I don't know who they are. As soon as I have a slight grasp, I'm thrown a new one. Add to that a year happens within these 100 pages, and I've...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Becky Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My Name is Not Easy is a book about young students who were forced to attend a private school since there was no education for them near their homes. A majority of the students are from Alaska and/or Native American tribes. The particular school this story highlights is a Catholic school where the "Indians and Eskimos" have chosen to segregate. While they share no background with each other in their homes, they expect to share no experiences at this school. However, both groups of students hate...more

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Nov 25, 2011 H rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the episodic story of several children in an Alaskan boarding school in the early 1960's. Some "indian" some "eskimo" and some white. Though surrounded by efforts to eradicate their culture, the children somehow hold on, though not without losing some of themselves.

Though I found this book well-written and compelling, I felt like my own knowledge of the history of Indian schools and the way native children were yanked out of their families to be "adopted" helped me understand the narrati...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, historical-fiction, young-adult

3.5 stars

Luke, Bunna, and Isaac are Alaskan Eskimo brothers living above the Arctic circle. In order to continue their education, their mom sends them to a Catholic boarding school hundreds of miles away from their village. As the oldest, Luke is told to look out for his younger brothers in their strange new environment where there are whites, Indians, Eskimoes, strange foods, and English is the only language allowed.

Based very much on true accounts of those who were sent to these Alaskan boardi...more

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About Debby Dahl Edwardson

My name is Debby and I am a writer. I write stories for young people.

If you haven't seen me, it's because I live far far away and do, indeed, write from the top of the world: Barrow, Alaska, to be exact, the northernmost community on the North American Continent.

I've lived here pretty much all of my adult life—thirty years (don’t do the math!) and this place and its people have shaped who I am as...more

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Books by Debby Dahl Edwardson

Whale Snow/Uqsruagnaq (English - Inupiaq Bilingual Edition)

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My Name Is Not Easy

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