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French Titles

		Pingualuit ou la fontaine de jouvence Diane Groulx Illustrations: Chantal Gervais Saint-Damien-de-Brandon, Quebec: Éditions du soleil de minuit, 2002. 77 p. (Roman de l'aube) ISBN 2980580252 Ages 8 to 10
Pingualuit ou la fontaine de jouvence Source

Anaanatsiak, the grandmother and godmother of Nirliq, an eight-year-old Inuit girl, is very ill. Saddened, the little girl goes off by herself to relive pleasant memories of her grandmother. She meets a goose, who asks her to get her grandmother to tell her about Pingualuit, a crater filled with crystal water that magically bestows youth. Pingualuit is a lake that is far and surrounded by cliffs, making travel to it difficult. Nirliq's brother, 16-year-old Ilaijah, agrees to take her there, but asks her to wait until after one hunt. But Nirliq does not listen, and venturing out on her own, she falls. Ilaijah finds her and takes her back to the house with a gourd filled with water from the lake for their grandmother.

In this story, young Nirliq comes to understand life, illness and death, and realizes that she cannot change the course of time. A glossary at the end of the book provides a translation of the Inuktitut words used throughout the story.

Author Diane Groulx has written two other novels for young people, Le défi nordique and Terreur dans la taïga. This is a first work by illustrator Chantal Gervais.

–HBP