On the Shoulder of a Giant

I enjoyed reading On the Shoulder of a Giant, because I like to read myths and legends from different places around the world! It is fun to know what sort of explanations people have for things that happen, like what makes the wind blow.

In this story, Inukpak is a giant who lives in the Arctic, way up north with the polar bears and whales. He is one of the great giants, which means he is the size of a mountain! Inukpak meets a hunter out on the tundra, and thinks he is a small child, who is lost from his parents. Giants think humans are tiny!

There are many funny parts in this book, like when Inukpak catches a bowhead whale to eat for dinner, but thinks it is a sculpin, which is just a little fish. That is so silly! When the hunter is scared of a polar bear, Inukpak laughs and says, “This is not a polar bear. This is a baby fox or lemming. It is much too small to be a polar bear!”

I think it would be hard to be a giant, because people would be scared of you, not knowing if you were a friendly or cruel giant. So, it is nice at the end of the book that the hunter becomes friends with the giant.