In the early 1600s, an Inuit boy named Tuk witnesses the arrival of a whaling ship from Europe, and he describes the differences in the way of life between his tribe and the European explorers as they both hunt for whales.

From the most celebrated children’s nature writer of our time comes a posthumous new novel in the tradition of her Newbery award-winning Julie of the Wolves In 1848, a young boy witnesses a rare sight—the birth of a bowhead, or ice whale, he calls Siku. Years later, he unwittingly brings about the death of an entire pod of whales, and only Siku survives. For this act, the boy receives a curse of banishment. Through the generations, this curse is handed down: Siku returns year after year, in reality and dreams, to haunt the boy’s descendants. Told in alternating voices, both human and whale, Jean Craighead George’s last novel shows the interconnectedness of humankind and the animals they depend on. “It’s a bold, wistful, and heartfelt coda to a distinguished career.”—School Library Journal

Presents the story of the Austrian child-bride who, in the "safety" of a royal marriage, was swept up in the political furies of her time and paid with her life for the luxurious excesses associated with her court.

Over 200 vintage engravings, drawings, and photographs of barks, brigs, cutters, and other vessels. Also harpoons, lances, whaling guns, many other artifacts. Comprehensive text by foremost authority. 207 black-and-white illustrations.