Book Review: The Trap

The Trap, by John Smelcer
Voted one of the top ten books of 2006 on the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults List, this is a small gem not to be missed. Told in alternating chapters from the point of view of Grandfather Albert Least-Weasel and grandson Johnny Least-Weasel (Athabaskan Indians), the story is a race-against-the-clock survival story set in the Alaskan wilderness. Alaska itself is one of the main characters, a place where there are over 100 words for snow… a place with a voice that “… seemed to ring out from its highest mountains, to be carried by the wind off glaciers down toward the sea, and to say that it could kill you in a second.” Spare and poetic, but steeped in portent, this book, by the only surviving speaker of the Ahtna Athabaskan language, is a rare discovery. Recommended for young adults and adults. -Mrs. Mac