Jean Craighead George wrote a book that was a staple of my childhood: Julie Of The Wolves.

It’s a book about a very young (like thirteen years old) native Alaskan girl who was an orphan and made to marry an abusive guy that doesn’t even want to be her husband. And that’s just the beginning of the book.

She decides to run away from that crappy situation (an attempted rape that was the last straw for her) to try to reach a friend who lives far away, but gets hopelessly lost on the Alaskan tundra.

Her only hope for survival is to draw on the traditional ways of her people and possibly befriend a wolf pack she comes across.

Apparently Jean Craighead George came up with the idea to write Julie Of The Wolves while on a trip to Barrow, Alaska to do research for an magazine article on wolves.

She had brought her son along for the trip and while in a plane he spotted an Eskimo girl by herself on the tundra. Her son commented that the girl “looked awfully little to be out there by herself.”

While in Barrow she saw many people communicating with wolves and met a woman called Julia Sebevan who taught her about “the old ways of the Eskimos.”

After having so much inspiration in Alaska Jean Craighead George went back home and decided to write a story about an Eskimo girl trying to survive alone on the tundra, basing the main character on Julia Sebevan.

Julie Of The Wolves went on to win many awards, including the Newbery Medal. And despite being a book that was one of the most frequently challenged by parents during that decade (due to the rape scene) it actually made it on to the shelves of my school library.

I drank up all stories about Alaska when I was a kid so when I saw the cool looking cover of Julie Of The Wolves and that the book was about Alaska it was a sure thing that I was going to take it off the shelf and finish it by the next day. I ended up liking the book so much that I bought my own copy and ended up reading it many times over.

So yeah what a loss to have Jean Craighead George pass away, she was such an amazing storyteller. I’m glad she had ninety-three years of life and that she decided to write Julie Of The Wolves, RIP.

—

An old monk and a young monk were walking on a path and they came to a great river.

There was no denying that the river was rife with danger. One only had to stand at its edge to see that though it was possible to cross you could very well lose your life in the raging water.

Next to them by the river stood a woman who was staring into the water, she needed to cross the river but was frozen with fear.

The young monk glanced at the woman and went into the river, he battled with the current and after a time was able to get to the ground on the other side.

The old monk saw the woman and scooped her up. Carrying her in his arms he battled with the current and after a time was able to get to the ground on the other side.

The younger monk’s eyes went large, he was horrified but didn’t say anything out of respect for the older monk. They both continued on their way together but the farther they went down the path the more what the older monk had done bothered him and finally the words came bursting out of his mouth:

“How could you have carried that woman? You know very well that as monks we are not allowed to touch women even for a moment, yet you carried her all the way across the river!”

The older monk turned to his friend and was calm. He said simply:

“I left that woman way back at the river, why are you still carrying her?”

—

Oh snap LOL. It is a good point though don’t you think?

The girls who played Laura Ingalls and Nellie Oleson were actually best friends in real life. Who knew?

This is one of those weird but hilarious juxtapositions that I suspect only happened because of the internet. So here’s to you, internet, *raises cup of coffee* for giving me an endless supply of weird story-related things to laugh at.

Oh and extra points if you saw the title for this blog post and immediately thought ‘Harry Potter’.

This was Southern California in the late 1970s. I was 13, and I’d persuaded my parents to let me ride to school. This was done purely in the interest of survival.

The older kids on my bus were a bullying, drug-addled lot who tormented the weak. By which I mean me. One day a ninth-grader wearing a Black Sabbath T-shirt—Jessie, pronounced “Jess-eye,” as in Jess I do have discrete quantities of marijuana available for purchase—ripped my sneaker off and chucked it out the window.

They next day it was my hat. Eventually, I figured, he’d toss me out whole.

That’s part of a cool little story that I randomly came across today and liked quote a bit.

I liked the story because not only was the writing done well imo but the story itself made a good point… well I don’t want to ruin it, you can read the whole thing over at Bicycling Magazine:

http://www.bicycling.com/news/featured-stories/freedom

What did you think of the story, did you like it Y/N? The last half kind of made me nostalgic for all the adventures I used to get into as a kid roaming around on my bike.

Maurice Sendak died this morning from complications from a stroke he suffered a few days ago.

He wrote and illustrated Where The Wild Things Are, one of the most beloved children’s books of all time …er, or maybe I’m just biased because it was one of my favorite stories as a child.

I take a bit of solace in the fact that he got 83 years of life, but still what a loss to the world :(.

Where The Wild Things Are was originally named Land Of Wild Horses. But…

Once the author started working on the book he realized he couldn’t draw horses.

So he changed the horses to monsters.

What do you think, was it a good call? Would you rather have horses or monsters?

I gotta admit I’ve cried over the death of fictional characters quite a few times :P. My earliest memory of doing this was when I was a kid and I got to the end of Charlotte’s Web… I cried so hard and was wrecked for weeks!

His father owned a stationary store and worked hard at it, thinking that one day his son would take over and continue the new family business.

When George became a teenager he raced cars as much as he could and had lots of fun, until right before his high school graduation when he wrecked his car and was thrown from it during the accident. He almost died that day and while he was recovering he decided not to be a racecar driver after all.

Instead of racing cars he went into college and studied anthropology, there was no adrenaline rush like in racing but at least it wouldn’t kill him. Still, he needed something a little more exciting in his life.

He and some friends started to get into movies and filmmaking and eventually he started to make his own short films. He fell in love with the art of making movies and transferred to a different college so that he could study it.

Meanwhile his father had still been working at the stationary store and methodically building it up into a successful business. But George told his father that he would never take over the store, having a job doing the same thing every day would be too dull of a life for him.

His father was crushed. He had dedicated his life to building this business just so his son could take over and have a stable path to success. His own father had died when he was fifteen and he wanted to make a better life for his son. They got into a big fight and he said to George ‘You’ll be back, making your way in life isn’t as easy as you think!’

So did his father end up being right? Yes and no lol.

Making his was in life definitely wasn’t easy, especially for someone who didn’t like to follow the standard rules for doing things.

He took whatever odd jobs that he could get related to the movie industry and worked his way up over the years.

He eventually had some successes and even started his own film production company, but didn’t make his name in the world until he decided to work on a certain movie about an epic story set in space.

That movie was called Star Wars and today George Lucas is one of the richest people in the world. He never did go to work at the stationary store, but as you can imagine in the end there was no hard feelings about it from his father.