LitPick Review
Smiler's Bones, by Peter Lerangis, is a story about an Eskimo named Minik. Minik and five other Eskimos, including Minik's father Qisuk ("Smiler"), travel from Greenland to America with the explorer Robert Peary. In America, the Eskimos become a living exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Within ninety-six days, four of the six Eskimos, including Qisuk, are dead. Not long after, one leaves America to return to Greenland, leaving Minik to be the only Eskimo living in New York. In Minik's search for the truth, he uncovers a web of lies and deceptions.
Opinion:
This is a very interesting book that is based on a true story. Although it is interesting, I wish that the author had done a more complete job of filling in the sections of the book that are not recorded in the history of the event. I found many parts of this book intriguing. The story has a satisfying ending. Overall, Smiler's Bones is an exceptional book, and the author did do a good job of expressing this story from Minik's point of view.
