Description:
It was a Monday in February. Fifth-grader Bruce Turner squirmed in his seat. It was -20 degrees outside and a blizzard was burying streets and driving the snow against doorways. There had been no outdoor recess today. Bruce was bored. He wanted to be outside where he spent hours year-round, following animal tracks, observing snow geese during nesting season, finding tuttu antlers on the tundra, watching gulls and ravens soar overhead in the wind, and jigging for fish under the river ice. Bruce thought his village, Nuiqsut, was the best place in the world because he could do all the things he loved right here.