Place of the Pretend People: Gifts from a Yup'ik Eskimo Village

By Carolyn Kremers

Book Overview

Place of the Pretend People is a vivid, sensitive account of one woman's choice to live and teach in a Yup'ik Eskimo village and later to make her home in Interior Alaska. A fascinating and unusual memoir, Carolyn Kremers' book is both a journey of cultural discovery and a story of spiritual and artistic seeking.The author offers readers an intimate encounter with Yup'ik culture, modern and traditional, as she describes teaching music and English in Tununak, a village tucked along the windswept Bering Sea coast of Western Alaska. Kremers' experiences in Tununak and elsewhere provide keen insight into the lives and land of the people she grows to love. Through her friendships with Yup'ik people and others, some of the mysteries of life in a challenging northern environment are unraveled, and she begins to understand some of the mysteries within her own heart.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0882408550
• ISBN13: 9780882408552
• Release Date: September 2011
• Publisher: Alaska Northwest Books
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A personal favorite

This book is a biography of a bush teacher beginning in 1986. It is available only in hardback but if you are considering teaching in Alaska then go ahead and invest. Carolyn Kremers came to Alaska to teach at a turning point in her life and her wonder at what she sees is shared with the reader. Kremers gives a real "sense of place" through stories, conversations, poetry, journaling and student writing. Prospective teachers should especially consider reading the chapter titled "I hate school." This book demonstrates how challenging the teaching of multicultural students and students in general is everywhere. It covers not only teaching but also living in Alaska. It is also very different from all of the others books I have read about Alaskan teachers because of the contemporary prospective of the author versus the Alaska of 1900 or even 1950 that most books cover.

Place for the Pretend People

I loved the book. I found myself reading before I went to work in the mornings besides reading at night. I felt an eagerness to find out if she shared the same awe of the native culture that I did. She appreciated the culture she found herself in while exploring her inner thoughts and trying to come to peace with them.