“This story is one of the most ancient and commonly told in Inuit history. In Alaska, Canada, Greenland, or Russia– wherever there are Inuit– this story is told.” (p. 2)

Author- illustrator, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril’s  artwork is amazing in its shading from light to dark, greys to blacks, and ever deepening blues help set the stage for this story from the far, far north where darkness reigns for months at a time.

A mother’s grief over the loss of her husband turns dark and cruel as she blinds her son. In the spring, at lake’s edge, the loon helps the blinded boy regain his sight by diving deeply in the lake with him three times. Come summer with the boy having such fun harpooning beluga whale his mother wants to join the fun. In revenge, the boy ties the harpooning rope around his mother in such a way she goes into the water after the whale. There in the water’s depths the mother’s hair braid eventually becomes the horn of the narwhal she becomes.  “Today, the narwhal will forever be a reminder that every act of revenge is a link in a chain that can only be broken by forgiveness.” (p. 40)