My first question is who is Julie. So far, I've only met Miyax.
As I read part I, I wondered how Miyax could have run away from home with so much stuff. She says that she ran away from home with a couple of changes of clothes, a sleeping bag, a cooking pot, and some other supplies. I have a heavy cast-iron cooking pot. It probably weighs 15 pounds. It is the last thing I would want to lug around if I were running away. I hope Miyax's cooking pot was lighter or she never would have gotten very far. There's a problem, however, with lighter cooking pots: a lighter one might not work very well on an open campfire. Another problem in her packing: a sleeping pack is pretty bulky. Miyax's pack is made out of fur, which is a pretty bulky material. It sounds challenging: running away with both heavy and bulky things. This is a daunting challenge for a 13-year-old!
What if she'd brought a compass with her? Would that alone have helped her from getting lost? Even if she had brought a compass, wouldn't she have also needed a map? We need a compass to see what direction we are traveling and a map to chart the journey. Tundra sounds like the most difficult terrain to keep track of. There are no landmarks. It all looks the same in every direction. It is called the frozen desert, because it has so little permanent vegetation. Imagine trying to plot a path in a desert, which also has few landmarks. At least in the desert the sun rises and sets and, thus, you can figure out where East and West are. In the summer months in northern Alaska, however, the sun doesn't rise and set for a period of many weeks. What latitude is Miyax's camp? When will there start to be sunrises and sunsets and will these be in the East and West, as in lower latitudes?
p. 5-23
Potential things for Miyax to worry about:
1. Starving
2. Being attacked or eaten by wolves
3. Freezing, if she remains lost, or if she wears damp clothing
4. Getting stranded in a sudden fog
5. Getting stranded in an early snow storm.
6. Getting sick (She doesn't actually worry about this, but it's a possibility.)
7. Being tracked by Daniel, the husband she ran away from. (Ditto.)
8. Getting hurt (Ditto.)
Ideas for dealing with pages 5-23:
1. Write a vocabulary list (Include non-English words like gussak (p. 1 and p. 28).
2. Write a aurvival guide for the region.
3. Write a guide for talking with wolves.
4. Invent some correspondence between Amy and Miyax.
5. Chart Mayax's journey on a map for each of her days in the tundra so far.
6. Write Mayax's journal for each of her days in the tundra so far.
7. Research an animal: caribou, arctic fox, lemmings, crane flies, jaeger, etc.
8. Research a plant: arctic pea, lichens, mosses, etc.
