Synopses & Reviews
An award-winning writer delivers the inspiring, true story of Alaskan Eskimo students who, despite lacking world knowledge and speaking English as a second language, manage to achieve great educational feats. Original.
Review
'The Kids from Nowhere is, straightforwardly, a heart-lifting epic about the educational triump of a group of Yupik Eskimo students from tiny, isolated St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. But the story unfolds on several levels at once and is equally revealing about the stunning dedication of their gifted teacher and guide, George Guthridge.' --Award-winning author Barry Lopez
Synopsis
From the world-award-winning writer comes the gripping, true story of a group of Alaskan Eskimo students who, despite nearly impossible odds, achieve one of the most stunning educational feats in the history of American education. In 1982, George Guthridge brought his wife and two young daughters to Gambell, Alaska, a small village on the edge of the remote blizzard-swept St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, one of the harshest and most remote places in Alaska. Guthridge was there to teach at a Siberian-Yupik school -- a school so troubled it was under threat of closure. For its own reasons, the school district enters the students into one of the most difficult academic competitions in the nation. The school has no computers and very few books. The students lack world knowledge and speak English as a second language. Still, George resolves to coach them to a state championship. But the students have an even greater goal of their own. Hilarious, disturbing, densely atmospheric -- and packed with surprises at every turn -- The Kids from Nowhere is a powerful, poignant story that will make you want to cry and cheer at the same time. Similar to an Alaskan Stand and Deliver, this is an inspiring story of triumph over adversity that provides a fascinating view of a remote Alaska Native village.
About the Author
George Guthridge has been nationally honored four times as an educator for his work with Alaska Native youth. Using his methods, his rural-Alaska students have graduated from such places as MIT, Harvard, West Point, Yale Law School, the University of Washington Medical School, Syracuse, and Stanford.
A former technical writer and science magazine editor-in-chief, he has published five novels and more than seventy short stories and novelettes, and has been a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula Awards for science fiction and fantasy three times. He and co author Janet Berliner won the prestigious Bram Stoker Award, for Children of the Dusk.
He is now Professor of English at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Bristol Bay. He is currently creating a DVD and workbook series about his revolutionary approaches to teaching writing and grammar.