A Sled Dog for Moshi

Bushey's competent adventure story is set in the subarctic world of the Inuits (often erroneously called Eskimos). Moshi, a young native of Baffin Island, Canada, and Jessica, whose family has moved there recently from New York City, are caught in a deadly late-spring whiteout. As Moshi teaches Jessica how to survive the storm, she rethinks her own longing for a pet like Jessica's little trick-performing terrier and comes to appreciate the virtues of her father's hardworking sled dogs. Arnaktayouk, an Inuit who lives on Baffin Island, amplifies the exotic setting of the story with soft, colored-pencil illustrations; a final picture glossary reviewing many of the terms in the text (``kamiks,'' ``bannock,'' ``tundra'') also serves this end. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)