The True Book of Little Eskimos
Copeland
1953
The First Book of Eskimos
Brewster
1952
Yikes! I don’t really know where to begin. Here we have two ancient books on Eskimos. Both of these titles are older than me! Little Eskimos bugs me as I didn’t think they were necessarily “small.” The second book (pictured below) made me cringe when I saw the spine label. Sometimes there are just no words. Any of the kids in my library would think I was out of my mind if I gave them either of these books.
Native peoples of Alaska and Canada and other arctic regions are not one homogeneous group. I believe that in Canada, Yupik and Inuit are more appropriate descriptions, and Eskimo is considered a pejorative. While Alaska has distinct groups, they are generally okay with the name Eskimo. ALB readers from these regions, please correct me!
By the way, neither book has been weeded as of this writing and both are in a children’s collection. (sigh)
Mary
Awful Library Books 