Blessing’s Bead

Description

Nutaaq and her older sister| Aaluk| are on a great journey| sailing from a small island off the coast of Alaska to the annual trade fair.
There| a handsome young Siberian wearing a string of cobalt blue beads watches Aaluk “the way a wolf watches a caribou| never resting.” Soon his actions–and other events more horrible than Nutaaq could ever imagine–threaten to shatter her I nupiaq world.
Seventy years later| Nutaaq’s greatgranddaughter| Blessing| is on her own journey| running from the wreckage of her life in Anchorage to live in a remote Arctic village with a grandmother she barely remembers.
In her new home| unfriendly girls whisper in a language she can’t understand| and Blessing feels like an outsider among her own people.
Until she finds a cobalt blue bead–Nutaaq’s bead–in her grandmother’s sewing tin.
The events this discovery triggers reveal the power of family and heritage to heal| despite seemingly insurmountable odds..
Two distinct teenage voices pull readers into the native world of northern Alaska in this beautifully crafted and compelling debut novel.