Lesson 21 — Activity 3: About The Middle of Everywhere

Novel Summary:

Noah finds out there are worse things than eating raw ptarmigan liver. But not much worse.

Noah Thorpe is spending the school term in George River, in Quebec's Far North, where his dad is an English teacher in the Inuit community. Noah's not too keen about living in the middle of nowhere, but getting away from Montreal has one big advantage: he gets a break from the bully at his old school.

 

However, Noah learns that problems have a way of following you — no matter how far you travel. To the Inuit kids, Noah is a qallunaaq — a southerner, someone ignorant of the customs of the North. Noah thinks the Inuit have a strange way of looking at the world, plus they eat raw meat and seal blubber. Most have never left George River — a town that doesn't even have its own doctor, let alone a McDonald's.

 

But Noah's views change when he goes winter camping and realizes he will have to learn a few lessons from his Inuit buddies if he wants to make it home.

Courtesy of Publisher

Photographed by John Fredericks
Used with permission

About the Author:

Monique Polak is an active freelance journalist whose work appears frequently in The Montreal Gazette and in Postmedia newspapers across the country.

 

Monique lives in Montreal, Quebec, where many of her stories are set. She writes books based on her own experiences. The Middle of Everywhere was based on her trip to Nunavik in 2007.

About the Setting :

The setting of the novel is in Kangiqsualujjuaq (also known as George River). George River is far up North, and their average temperature is –7 degrees. In the winter, the weather can be very harsh with temperatures dropping to as low as –40 degrees and colder! There are only about 900 people who live in George River, and most are the Nunavik Inuit.

So where is George River?

George River is an Inuit village located on the east coast of Ungava Bay
at the mouth of the George River in Nunavik, Quebec.


Courtesy of Public Domain

The Village of Kangiqsualujjuaq (George River)

Licensed under CCO 1.0