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    My Name Is Not Easy
    My Name Is Not Easy
    My Name Is Not Easy
    Audiobook6 hours

    My Name Is Not Easy

    Written by Debby Dahl Edwardson

    Narrated by Nick Podehl and Amy Rubinate

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    My name is not easy. My name is hard like ocean ice grinding the shore or wind pounding the tundra…

    Luke knows his Iñupiaq name is full of sounds white people can’t say. So he leaves it behind when he and his brothers are sent to boarding school hundreds of miles away from their Arctic village. At Sacred Heart School, students—Eskimo, Indian, White—line up on different sides of the cafeteria like there’s some kind of war going on. Here, speaking Iñupiaq—or any native language—is forbidden. And Father Mullen, whose fury is like a force of nature, is ready to slap down those who disobey. Luke struggles to survive at Sacred Heart. But he’s not the only one. There’s smart-aleck Amiq, a daring leader—if he doesn’t self-destruct; Chickie, blond and freckled, a different kind of outsider; and small, quiet Junior, noticing everything and writing it all down. They each have their own story to tell. But once their separate stories come together, things at Sacred Heart School—and the wider world—will never be the same.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateFeb 20, 2012
    ISBN9781455879533
    My Name Is Not Easy
    Author

    Debby Dahl Edwardson

    Debby Dahl Edwardson grew up in Minnesota, where she spent summers at her family cabin on an island in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. She earned a BA from Colorado College, attended Nansenskolen in Norway, and has lived for over thirty years in Barrow, the northernmost community in Alaska. She earned an MFA from Vermont College in 2005. Debby and her husband George have seven children. Her picture book, Whale Snow (Charlesbridge, 2003), was named to the IRA Notable Books for a Global Society and the CBC/NSST lists and was named Best Picture Book by IPPY. Her first novel, Blessing’s Bead (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009) was selected by the Junior Library Guild and named to the IRA Notable Books for a Global Society, ALA/YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, and Booklist’s Top 10 First Novels for Youth lists. Her novel, My Name is Not Easy, is a 2011 National Book Award Finalist.

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    Reviews for My Name Is Not Easy

    4/5

    65 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Narrated by Nick Podehl and Amy Rubinate. This novel is based on real events in the author's family, in which kids from remote areas of Alaska were sent to boarding schools hundreds of miles away in order to continue their education. Many of the kids were Native American. A real sense of the Eskimo and Indian cultures comes through the different kids' narratives as they struggle to adjust to a different place altogether, overseen by priests and nuns. Podehl and Rubinate provide youthful voices appropriate for the setting and characters, nicely summoning up emotions such as anger and grief. Part of me wonders what it would sound like if a Native American from Alaska narrated the boys' parts. "Absolute True Diary of a Teenage Indian" breathed authenticity when Sherman Alexie read it.
    • 4/5
      This is about indigenous children and others who live in hard to reach areas of Alaska going to a Catholic boarding school. They hardly ever get to go home. Even though most are indigenous, they aren't from the same backgrounds. It takes place during the 60's. Most were referred to as either Indians or Eskimos by the school. They endure quite a bit, but they also form bonds. A lot of it is based on real events. I was able to really get into the story and root for the characters. It definitely made me think of things that I hadn't before.
    • 4/5
      Another Summer audio program YA book. What I liked was learning about the Eskimos and Indians from Alaska area. It was also so sad to learn how poorly they were treated but then the US was mistreating blacks in the south and other Ethnic groups on the mainland. I did not realize that we gave Eskimos radioactive Iodine as a research to see how they withstood the cold. We did not provide them education and the children had to be shipped out to schools and homes to get an education often depriving their parents any say. I thought the changing perspectives were a little bit confusing at first but over all a good book. I see that it won the 2011 National Book Award.It also won the IRA Notable Book For Global Society (2012), NCSS/CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People (2012).Rating: 3.88
    • 4/5
      Brilliant and sad. A novelization on the modern atrocities committed against Native American Indians and Alaskan Inuit that invites to reflect on how these peoples were treated, without asking you to feel guilt or shame.
    • 4/5
      Historical Fiction: Chapter BookEdwardson, Debby Dahl My Name is not Easy. Skyscape, 2013. 256p. Upper Elementary and upLuke and his brothers Bunna and Isaac Aaluk are taken from their Inupiaq village to attend Catholic boarding school with other Alaskan children (Chickie, Sonny, Donna, Amiq, Junior) in the early 1960’s. There they encounter prejudice, an abusive priest, death, sadness, the Alaskan earthquake but also friendship, respect, and trust. Very warm and at times heartbreaking story based on the author’s husband’s true experiences. Clear, flowing story told in a mostly first person point of view in alternating chapters with the different children’s views. Theme is friendship and family.AK: Inupiaq, Athabascan village life, animals, life-style, location, Alaska EarthquakeActivity: Help students locate on a map the areas of the state that each of the characters are from (ie Kotzebue, Barrow, Fairbanks, etc.).
    • 4/5
      A really good, if somewhat short, read. The ending could've been better developed, but I did like the book.
    • 4/5
      Multiple points-of-view tell the story of Native American children sent off to a Catholic boarding school in the early 1960s. Beautifully written, bleak and haunting. Outstanding historical fiction.
    • 3/5
      The story of three Eskimo brothers from a village north of the Artic circle sent to a Catholic boarding school where other students are a mix of Eskimo, Indian and white. Set in the 1960's, the story touches on illegal adoptions of native children, human testing, plans for atomic testing in Alaska and how hunting laws affect the native population, as well as the difficulties faced by native children sent to boarding school where they were not allowed to speak their languages and expected to conform to different norms.
    • 5/5
      narration by, Amy Rubinate & Nick PodehlI picked this book for my #JIAM challenge to listen to new to me narrators and the narrator I wanted to listen to was Amy Rubinate and this book sounded good plus had a second new to me narrator Nick Podehl, I am so glad I picked this book it is very powerful and I learned about a part of history I knew nothing about before now.This was a part of history I had never really heard about, how the native Alaskan children were sent away to catholic schools and were given easier names, a new language and taken away from everything they knew. This is a true story written as fiction, the forward explains why it is written as such. The story is told by different people the main 2 being Eskimo boy Luke & young white motherless Chickie a young girl from a Scandinavian background, they tell a very different yet similar story both coming from different backgrounds yet still taken away from all they know to be educated in the Catholic Boarding School.However there is much more than just education going on at this school there are also some military experiments to test how Eskimo’s live in such cold but these tests are done with radiation and iodine- 131 and I’m sure their parents were never informed. There is also Luke’s little brother Isaac who is whisked away and adopted without consent and this is the 60’s not the 30’s. There are many tragedies along the way. There are other characters Junior, Amiq, Donna & Sonny they are white, Eskimo and Native American (it’s never really said what tribe) and how each of them is trying to find their way in the world without losing who they are.I think this is a very important book that should be read in high school to get a feel of what Americans have done to each other as they try to Americanize the natives. It is important so that this kind of thing never happens again.I could feel the anger of these kids, they were all treated as orphans when they weren’t they all had families even if they weren’t the greatest parents they were still alive. This story really touched me and I am very glad I read it.The narration by, Amy Rubinate & Nick Podehl goes back and forth as we hear Luke & Chickie’s stories (they were the main two there were other stories too) both narrators are fantastic and make you feel the various emotions of these characters. Both narrators were new to me and I very much enjoyed their narration and will look for other books they have narrated!I see why this book has won awards I think it is a book everyone should read especially if you are like me and this was a part of history you knew nothing about.4 ½ Stars
    • 5/5
      This is a different kind of survival story. This is survival of the spirit not the body. It is about how kids forced to leave their homes manage to learn new things without losing their cultures.This historical fiction story tells about a Inupiaq boy named Luke who was sent with his brothers to a Catholic boarding school from his home in the north of Alaska. It records the things that happened to these Native kids when they were forced to leave home for their educations. Almost immediately the youngest brother Isaac who is only six is taken from the others and sent away to be adopted by a family in Texas. Luke and Bunna, and even their families, have nothing to say about it. This story talks about the mostly well-meaning volunteers who educated the kids and tried to make them into good Christians. It talks about the rivalry between the Eskimos and the Indians that exists in the school and the white staff who can't tell the Indians and the Eskimos apart.The story also tells about a white girl named Chickie who was at the school too. Her father was a storekeeper in a remote village. Chickie identifies with the Eskimo kids she grew up with. The story is filled with kids like her and with orphans. They all band together and form friendships.I loved the language of this story told from a variety of viewpoints - Luke's, Chickie's, Sonny's who is the Indian son of a fatherless family who has lots of responsibility for his younger siblings, Amiq's who is the Eskimo son of a father who drinks, Donna who is an Indian girl who was orphaned and raised until boarding school by another missionary nun. We see a number of events through their eyes. We see the army testing the kids with a radioactive drink to see why they are able to survive above the arctic circle. We see the reaction to the assassination of the first Roman Catholic president. We see the protests about proposed nuclear explosions above the Arctic Circle and we see protests about hunting laws.This would be a good story to read with kids to talk about history. The author tells us that most of the events really happened to various Native kids at government and private boarding schools. Luke is based on her own husband's story.
    • 3/5
      In her Author’s Note, Debby Edwardson describes the lack of schools near Alaska’s remote villages in the 1960s and the need to send even young children hundreds of miles away to school. She also describes Project Chariot, a plan to create an Alaskan Harbor by detonating nuclear blasts, and the military’s Cold Weather Research using iodine-131 on Alaskan children and adults. While My Name is Not Easy describes these deplorable incidents through the reminiscences of several children at Sacred Heart School, it does not do them justice. Rather than concentrating on the high emotions these acts might have generated, the book is more a light hearted three year diary of Luke, Chickie, Donna, Amiq and several other students. It merely touches on these issues and the antagonism between Alaskan Eskimos and Indians. In one incident Luke’s youngest brother, Isaac, too young to attend the school but sent there anyway, is taken away by a priest and ultimately given to a family in Texas to adopt, never sent back home. The heartache this situation might generate is glossed over.Edwardson’s writing is descriptive and certain characters emerge, but mostly the characters are one dimensional. In passing, she mentions several historic events such as President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and the Good Friday earthquake of 1964 which caused 115 deaths in Alaska, but does not elaborate. Readers will not get a good understanding of Alaskan life nor the issues faced by Alaskans living in remote, desolate tundra. There is a more informative, absorbing story waiting to emerge regarding these historic events.