Julie of the Wolves Study Guide

Jean Carolyn Craighead was born on July 2, 1919, to a family of naturalists. She grew up immersed in nature, going on frequent camping trips that exposed her to the flora and fauna of her native Washington, D.C. George graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1941 and went on to write professionally for many decades. She worked as reporter for The Washington Post in the 1940s and wrote for Reader’s Digest from 1969–1982. George married her husband, John Lothar George, in 1944, and they collaborated on several books and had three children together before divorcing in 1963. One of George’s first solo publications, My Side of the Mountain (1959) was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal. In 1970, George traveled to Barrow, Alaska (now Utqiagvik, Alaska) to research wolves for a piece she was writing for Reader’s Digest. George’s trip exposed her to the mannerisms of wolves and the culture of Utqiagvik’s Iñupiat population, and these experiences would inspire her to Julie of the Wolves (1972). The book was a major critical success for George and won the 1973 Newbery Medal. The Arctic tundra became one of George’s favorite places, and she would return to Utqiagvik many times after her initial trip. George published over 100 children’s books over the course of her career. Her style combines sharp, scientific detail with lyrical prose, and she is celebrated for writing books that instill in children a sense of wonder and respect for the natural world. She died on May 15, 2012 at age 92 in Mount Kisco, New York.

Though it did not become a state until 1959, the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. Most white settlers who colonized Alaska considered Alaska Natives to be ethnically and culturally inferior, and they enforced racial segregation laws to bar Alaska Natives from entering establishments and attending American schools. Although the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans, legal segregation would continue until the passage of the Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945. Even before Alaska became a U.S. territory, legislation passed on the mainland provided a foundation for the philosophy of forced assimilation that would imperil Alaska Natives’ ability to uphold their traditional way of life. In 1819, the United States passed the Civilization Fund Act, which provided federal funding for outside organizations, often religious institutions, to educate, or “civilize” the country’s Native American population. The federal government used this act to establish Native American boarding schools that “civilized” Native American children by removing them from their communities and forcing them to assimilate to Western cultural practices. Children were prohibited from wearing traditional clothing, using their own names, or speaking their own languages. The U.S. founded the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1824, and the agency established additional schools that operated according to the philosophy of forced assimilation. Miyax attends one of these schools in Julie of the Wolves. Although the Civilization Fund Act didn’t have a direct impact on Alaska at the time, its underlying philosophy of forced assimilation laid the groundwork for the government’s relationship to Alaska’s indigenous population.

Jean Craighead George was a renowned author of children’s literature who published over 100 books throughout her career, most of which center around nature. She wrote two sequels to Julie of the Wolves: Julie (1994), which begins minute after Julie of the Wolves ends, and Julie’s Wolf Pack (1997), which is narrated from the perspective of Kapu, the young wolf Miyax befriends in the original novel. Another of George’s notable books is My Side of the Mountain (1959), a children’s novel about a young boy’s struggle to survive in the wilderness of the Catskills. George has also published other children’s books that take place in the Arctic, most notably The Wounded Wolf (1978) and Water Sky (1987). While Julie of the Wolves is about a young Inuk girl, Jean Craighead George is not an indigenous author. Some notable recent works of young adult literature by indigenous authors that feature indigenous characters include Darcie Little Badger’s Elatsoe (2020), Dawn Quigley’s Apple in the Middle (2018), and Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter (2021). Finally, a central focus of Julie of the Wolves is Julie’s struggle to survive the Arctic tundra’s harsh, dangerous conditions. Other young adult novels that focus on a protagonist’s struggle to survive in the wilderness include Gary Paulson’s Hatchet (1986) and Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960).