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188th out of 231 books
—
175 voters
Dogsong
by
Gary Paulsen
"In the Old Days There Were Songs"Something is bothering Russel Susskit. He hates waking up to the sound of his father's coughing, the smell of diesel oil, the noise of snow machines starting up.
Only Oogruk, the shaman who owns the last team of dogs in the village, understands Russel's longing for the old ways and the songs that celebrated them. But Oogruk cannot give Russ...more
Only Oogruk, the shaman who owns the last team of dogs in the village, understands Russel's longing for the old ways and the songs that celebrated them. But Oogruk cannot give Russ...more
Mass Market Paperback, 162 pages
Published
July 1st 1999
by Simon Pulse
(first published March 28th 1985)
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With Gary Paulson's books, my relationship is a little strange. I either end up hating it completely or falling completely in love with it. This was one of those I fell completely in love with.
The language is simple, so simple that one may mistake it as a story for children. I disagree. He weaves the words in such a way that once I shut the book I am left in a thoughtful mood, and filled with yearning. His descriptions evoke the most wonderful (or not so wonderful, depending on what it is) imag...more
The language is simple, so simple that one may mistake it as a story for children. I disagree. He weaves the words in such a way that once I shut the book I am left in a thoughtful mood, and filled with yearning. His descriptions evoke the most wonderful (or not so wonderful, depending on what it is) imag...more
Apr 08, 2013
Eli
added it
I really enjoyed reading the book Dogsong by Gary Paulsen . I really liked how the author focused on how lots of things in life are not really important but we seem to make them important. For example snow machines vs dog sleds, in the book people seem to like the new snow machines but some think that it runes the old way of life. I also really enjoyed this book because it focused on Russel finding himself and what he was meant to do in life. I feel like there are a lot of people who feel this w...more
"Finding a Song in Haromny with the Alaskan Wilderness"
Set in the remote Alaskan artic this fascinating story chronicles the coming-of-age of a 14-year-old youth named Russell. Feeling vaguely discontented with his role as an Eskimo youth in a white man’s world he seeks spiritual guidance for what ails his troubled spirit from a blind Eskimo elder named Oogruk who also resides in the winter village. During a prolonged trance (part One of the book) Oogruk communicates—perhaps non-verbally--with...more
Set in the remote Alaskan artic this fascinating story chronicles the coming-of-age of a 14-year-old youth named Russell. Feeling vaguely discontented with his role as an Eskimo youth in a white man’s world he seeks spiritual guidance for what ails his troubled spirit from a blind Eskimo elder named Oogruk who also resides in the winter village. During a prolonged trance (part One of the book) Oogruk communicates—perhaps non-verbally--with...more
A Book Review: Dogsong by Gary Paulsen
The story of Dogsong is about a young man named Russell who lives within an Eskimo community. At the confusing age of fourteen, he begins to realize that something is not right within side of him. Russell finds himself steering away from the modern technology of the community such as the snow machines. He wishes things were how they used to be. He wishes he could eat the meat that was harvested raw and that he understood his place. As many questions and une...more
The story of Dogsong is about a young man named Russell who lives within an Eskimo community. At the confusing age of fourteen, he begins to realize that something is not right within side of him. Russell finds himself steering away from the modern technology of the community such as the snow machines. He wishes things were how they used to be. He wishes he could eat the meat that was harvested raw and that he understood his place. As many questions and une...more
WARNING: Contains Spoilers!!!
1. Summarize your story: who, what, when, where, why how
Dogsong by Gary Paulson is a story of Russel, 14 years old Eskimo going on the journey to become a man. The story is divided into 3 big parts. The first part is about Russel feeling unhappy about his life and going to see a blind old man called 'Oogruk'. There he learns that people in old days had songs for every life and decides to go on his journey to find his own song.
Part two is about Russel's journey. This...more
1. Summarize your story: who, what, when, where, why how
Dogsong by Gary Paulson is a story of Russel, 14 years old Eskimo going on the journey to become a man. The story is divided into 3 big parts. The first part is about Russel feeling unhappy about his life and going to see a blind old man called 'Oogruk'. There he learns that people in old days had songs for every life and decides to go on his journey to find his own song.
Part two is about Russel's journey. This...more
Jan 18, 2013
Sean W
added it
Dogsong was a great Gary Paulsen book as usual. It had many adventures and life changing experience through the eyes of a young boy. He is mentored by an old man of his village and takes what he says to heart. They do seem to have different view points as I assume they are Eskimos. My favorite quote from the book is when he was talking about the outdoors "The snow machines vipped by,I hate those things there so load and annoying but the outdoors is were boys become men and learn to live on their...more
Dogsong was a very good eye opening book from the view of the eskimo prospective.This book is about a young boy that doesn't know what to do with his life and needs help. His father tells him to go talk to an old man in the village they live in that has been around a very long time and knows a lot of things he can share with him to try and help him find what needs to happen. My favorite quote from this book is "Would you like some deer eyes now or later?" The old man said that talking to the boy...more
I feel like this book may merit a reread on my part, because while I can remember really, really liking it at the time, my actual memory of, you know... the plot... and the characters... is a little vague.
In fact, the only part I can remember at all features Oogruk and Russel hanging out in Oogruk's house. Oogruk gets hungry, so Russel goes out to the backyard and comes back with something dead--a caribou, maybe?--and then pops out the thing's eyes and heats them up, just a little, on the stove....more
In fact, the only part I can remember at all features Oogruk and Russel hanging out in Oogruk's house. Oogruk gets hungry, so Russel goes out to the backyard and comes back with something dead--a caribou, maybe?--and then pops out the thing's eyes and heats them up, just a little, on the stove....more
PAULSEN CATEGORY
Russell is 14 and restless. Restless for what he does not know. One morning, as Russell warms their breakfast of Caribou meat his father acknowledges Russell’s dissatisfaction and suggests he pay a visit to the Eskimo village’s shaman, Oogruk. Russell goes and realizes as he listens and learns from the old man that his restlessness is a hunger for the old ways, and traditions of his people. At the encouragement of Oogruk, and with only an ancestral dogsled and a strong and loyal...more
Russell is 14 and restless. Restless for what he does not know. One morning, as Russell warms their breakfast of Caribou meat his father acknowledges Russell’s dissatisfaction and suggests he pay a visit to the Eskimo village’s shaman, Oogruk. Russell goes and realizes as he listens and learns from the old man that his restlessness is a hunger for the old ways, and traditions of his people. At the encouragement of Oogruk, and with only an ancestral dogsled and a strong and loyal...more
The book Dogsong is about a boy named Russel who was different from everyone else in his village up north. So he went to the villages wise person Oogruk and he talked to him for hours. By the end of their conversations Russel figured that he ha to go back to the old time ways and find his song. Oogruk then gave him his dogsled, some weapons for the hunt and four dogs.
To get ready for him going back to the old time ways Russel had to learn them. So he stopped going to school in the village and Oo...more
To get ready for him going back to the old time ways Russel had to learn them. So he stopped going to school in the village and Oo...more
GARY PAULSEN's Dogsong is about Russel, an Eskimo boy who doesn't like the new "help" provided by the government. He doesn't like the snowmobiles and the winter houses. He prefers the older ways. Eventually, he sets off to find his true eskimo song by training a dog team and taking off north in his sled to live off of the land. He hunts with older Eskimo tools, learns to know his dogs, and survives in the tough Alaskan landscape. Along the way, he has dreams about the harsh realities of the Eski...more
Dogsong is the story of a modern Eskimo teenager. Russell, the protagonist, is tired of his modern day lifestyle and wants to find deeper fulfillment in his life. He goes to an old Eskimo who teaches him about old Eskimo ways and encourages Russell to take a long dogsled journey to find himself.
For the most part, I liked this book. The writing in it is beautiful and Gary Paulsen's personal experience with dog sledding is very apparent in the novel. His descriptions put you right on that dog sl...more
For the most part, I liked this book. The writing in it is beautiful and Gary Paulsen's personal experience with dog sledding is very apparent in the novel. His descriptions put you right on that dog sl...more
Fourteen-year-old Russell Susskit is an Eskimo living in an old village where most of the Eskimos have adopted the white man’s way of living and forgotten the Eskimo traditions and way of life. Russell wants to live the old ways of the Eskimos and goes to live with an old shaman, Oogruk, to learn the old ways. He learns how to hunt in the old ways with a dog sled team and hand-made weapons and how to survive in the Arctic wilderness. Russell must now go on a journey alone to learn about himself...more
I started off thinking I was going to like this book nearly as much as I had liked Hatchet. Hatchet is one of those series that I read as a kid and seem to have become quite nostalgic about. Whereas Brian (Hatchet) is forced into a fight for survival, Russel chooses his himself. At first, that didn't resonate with me as deeply as an unchosen life path, a tale of "true" survival.
But Russel's path was true, in its own way. He was not forced into it; rather, he chose his path himself in a quest t...more
But Russel's path was true, in its own way. He was not forced into it; rather, he chose his path himself in a quest t...more
Something is bothering Russel Susskit. He hates waking up to the sound of his father's coughing, the smell of diesel oil, the noise of snow machines starting up.
Only Oogruk, the shaman who owns the last team of dogs in the village, understands Russel's longing for the old ways & the songs that celebrated them. But Oogruk cannot give Russel the answers he seeks; the old man can only prepare him for what he must do alone. Driven by a strange, powerful dream of a long-ago self & by a burni...more
Only Oogruk, the shaman who owns the last team of dogs in the village, understands Russel's longing for the old ways & the songs that celebrated them. But Oogruk cannot give Russel the answers he seeks; the old man can only prepare him for what he must do alone. Driven by a strange, powerful dream of a long-ago self & by a burni...more
This story seems pretty simple on the surface: an Eskimo boy takes five dogs and a sled and finds himself with the old ways. However, the social commentary that exists in this novel speaks out for the new generation to remember who they are and their culture. This book can be relative to other readers of multicultural backgrounds.
Despite the fact that this book was set in Alaska and the protagonist was an Eskimo boy, I really felt a connection to the theme and messages of this novel. Growing up...more
Despite the fact that this book was set in Alaska and the protagonist was an Eskimo boy, I really felt a connection to the theme and messages of this novel. Growing up...more
I really wanted this to be better than it was. It started out strong and I learned more about dog-sledding than I ever really intended to, so that's a plus. But halfway through the book, it began to deteriorate. Our main character started to lose his marbles in a not-quite-entertaining-and-mostly-just-confusing way. I began to get an icky feeling about the descriptions of beating the skin and fur off the backs of the sled dogs (but I'm a Jack London fan so I got over that with minimal effort). W...more
This book was so dumb. I grabbed it to read because i needed something to read and all I really remembered about Gary Paulsen was that his books are about kids ending up in survival type situations. I was in the mood to read about kids figuring out how to make fire and kill their own food and this was a Newberry Honor book.
But this book really sucked. I enjoyed the parts where the kid was figuring out how to take care of himself but it mostly really sucked. Basically the whole book felt like thi...more
But this book really sucked. I enjoyed the parts where the kid was figuring out how to take care of himself but it mostly really sucked. Basically the whole book felt like thi...more
Jun 04, 2010
Rusty
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
children,
contemporary-fiction
This is the wonderful tale of a boy who follows his dream which were inspired by an old man he admires. Russel Susskit dares to follow a strange, powerful dream of his long-ago self to find his own song in an effort to better understand the old ways and the songs that describe them of his people. It's a great story. This book won garnered much recognition: Newbery Honor Book, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Notable Book, a School Library Book of the Year, a New York Public Library Book...more
I'm ambivalent about recommending this book to my 10-12 male readers; I think it would take a special soul to enjoy and appreciate this one. In brief: Russel, the young Alaskan protagonist, takes the dog team of one of his village's elders and takes off into the icy tundra. (Fascinating to read, in a way, mostly because I'm entirely amazed that any humans can manage to live in such places.) Lots of descriptions of meat, fat, eating; lots of strange hallucinatory dreams.
While I, as an adult read...more
While I, as an adult read...more
My oldest granddaughter, she is ten, traveled to Alaska with me this summer. Her Papa works here and we will be spending two months with him. We have a lot of time on our hands and with no T.V. or internet access at our summer home, reading has become a huge happy pastime for both of us. I read Dogsong to Iris and we both were so in love with this book. It is like reading a 170 page lyrical poem. The writing is almost rhythmic and flows in a way that makes you feel like you are floating along wi...more
Not my favorite Gary Paulsen book. The treatment of the dogs seemed harsh at times (I just hate to give people a reason to bully their animals...I understand in a life-or-death situation there are different "rules", but as a whole, we normally don't smack our dogs around, bite them, work them until they are half dead of starvation and fatigue and I hate to see this behavior acted out...some impressionable kids may think that is the way to exert authority or dominance over their adoring animal co...more
I've been wanting to pick up this book since I read Paulsen's nonfiction account of running dogs, Winterdance. I found the first half a little heavy-handed, even for YA fare, but sank deeply into story and rhythm the second part in a way I haven't fallen into a book in a long time. In the end, the power of the story overcame the unfortunate tendency (of so many books)to assume and even preach the superiority of everything old and indigenous and lost. I don't know if I would have been as enthrall...more
Russell lives in a village that is both modern and ancient. In this village, something is bothering him that he can't quite explain, and his father suggests that he visit the old village shaman Oogruk, who is steeped in the "old ways". Russell ends up spending and enjoying a lot of time with Oogruk learning about the old ways, until it comes time for him to take Oogruk's team of sled dogs out into the wilderness on a journey of his own. I have to admit that I did not expect to like this book (it...more
Russell is a young Eskimo who is questioning the changing world and white men. He longs for the days of songs and the way of life in the past. He is taken under the elderly Oogruk who directs him to the old ways and lends Russell his sled and dog. Russell sets out on a journey where he experiences long runs, inspiring dreams, starvation, and finding his own song.
At first I was not too enthusiastic to read this "boy" book, but I actually really enjoyed reading the book. It may seem a bit "tree-hu...more
At first I was not too enthusiastic to read this "boy" book, but I actually really enjoyed reading the book. It may seem a bit "tree-hu...more
My experience with this book might have been slightly tainted by listening to it on an audiobook rather than reading it. I love audiobooks, but I feel as though this one might have been more enjoyable had I read it with my own eyes. It is a compelling story, but it is very repetitive, and listening to the narrator repeat almost the same sentence several times in a row very slowly got a bit irritating. It is a beautiful book, though, and I look forward to reading (really reading...not listening t...more
I think you call this realistic fiction, one that was kind of hard for me to get into, not one that I or my daughter would have picked out otherwise. I read this after my daughter did. She was assigned to give a book report on it. It is well written, but my aversion for living outside in subzero temperatures or only eating meat at every meal has not be changed in the least. I suppose this is what your life is like when you live in extreme northern parts of the world. It makes me shiver just thin...more
I enjoyed this book and plan to recommend it to my sons who are fans of Hatchet. I could not help but compare this book to Julie of the Wolves, which I loved as a young adult. Dogsong is the story of a young native american, Eskimo boy who finds himself dissillusioned with the modern ways that he see encroaching on the old traditions. This boy, Russell decides to start out on his own to find the answers. With the help of an old blind man, OOgruk, Russel finds himself on a quest to find the answe...more
I found this one in a stack of books I received from my Aunt's classroom. At first, I couldn't believe 10-11 year old children should read about the harsh and raw lifestyle of an eskimo boy; however, the book is rich in detail about native american customs. It is brilliant coming of age tale. Also, the boy learns of the circular nature of life because animals give their lives to feed man and man returns gratitude to the animals so their spirits will return the next season. He also dreams in a ci...more
Do you like traditions? Then youll love this book. It is about a tennage escomo named Russel who wants to ive like they did in the old ways. He wanted to hunt and run dog sleds. He talked to the only person that could rememner the old days. Russel to took the dogs and ran he didnt stop and just kept going. He eventully ran in to a half dead and frozen woman. After he feeds her and defrosts her he realizes she is pregnet. They set up a camp and russel went on a huge hunt. As he came over a hill h...more
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Although he was never a dedicated student, Paulsen developed a passion for reading at an early age. After a librarian gave him a book to read--along with his own library card--he was hooked. He began spending hours alone in the basement of his apartment building, reading one book after another.
Running away from home at the age of 14 and traveling with a carnival, Paulsen acquired a taste for adve...more
More about Gary Paulsen...
Running away from home at the age of 14 and traveling with a carnival, Paulsen acquired a taste for adve...more
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Jun 05, 2012 01:42pm