My Name Is Not Easy

Edwardson (Blessing's Bead) crafts a multilayered story set in 1960s Alaska, told from the perspectives of children coming of age in a cultural contact zone. When 12-year-old Luke and his brothers are sent to a punitive Catholic boarding school, he knows that he will have to sacrifice his I%C3%B1upiaq name. But he isn't prepared to lose his youngest brother, Isaac, who is too young to enroll and is sent to live with a family in Texas. At Sacred Heart, Eskimos, Indians, and whites initially segregate themselves by ethnicity, but as they are touched by insidious outside forces, the racial boundaries fall away, and their voices become unified. Amiq, a defiant Eskimo, challenges authority, and a stubborn girl named Chickie longs to open closed doors, finding love with an Eskimo student; meanwhile, a quiet boy gathers the courage to write the truth. Edwardson distills a complex period in American history, examining the Cold War, the moon race, and the Kennedy era with cold, crisp illumination. Her beautifully styled prose offers strong descriptions of an isolated world and a mosaic of identities that must be sutured back together after being broken off at the root. Ages 12%E2%80%93up. (Oct.)