Dog sing a best song.

Dogsong, first published in 1985, is a young adult novel by American author Gary Paulsen, who wrote Dogsong while he was training his dog sled team for his first Iditarod run. It was awarded the Newbery Honor Award in 1986. Paulsen, who was a popular author of young adult and children’s contemporary literature, is best known for books in the coming-of-age genre, often dealing with surviving the wilderness and embracing nature. He authored more than 200 novels, as well as short stories, plays, and magazine articles.

Paulsen was an avid outdoorsman who divided his time between Alaska, New Mexico, Minnesota, and the Pacific. He was author of three Newbery Honor titles—Dogsong, Hatchet, and The Winter Room—and the 1997 winner of the American Library Association’s Margaret Edwards Award for his lifetime work in writing for teens.

While the book uses the term “Eskimo” throughout to describe the protagonist’s indigenous Arctic culture, this guide instead uses the term “Inuit,” in line with modern usage.

Plot Summary

Dogsong opens with Russel Susskit, a 14-year-old Inuit boy, waking up in his bunk in the government-issued house he lives in with his father in the Alaskan Arctic. They spend their winters in a developed settlement and their summers in a fishing camp. White missionaries introduced their modern culture, including tobacco, television, and religion, to the Inuit people many years ago. Russel’s father has forgotten most of the traditional ways of life and is now a devout Christian. Russel feels unsettled and unhappy. He is depressed by his father’s smoker’s cough and by the noise and smell of imported snowmachines.

When Russel’s father notices that his son is sad, he recommends that Russel talk to Oogruk, an old Inuit who still lives the “old way,” to seek spiritual guidance. Bringing an offering of caribou heads to Oogruk’s traditional Inuit house, Russel learns about how life used to be before the missionaries came. Oogruk is the only person in the village who still owns a team of sled dogs, and he tells Russel about an old, blind Inuit friend of his who traveled the wilderness with a team of sled dogs that served as his eyes. He also tells Russel that the heart of Inuit culture, the Inuit songs, died after the arrival of white missionaries. The missionaries preached that song and dance were sinful and introduced the concept of hell. Therefore, this fundamental part of Inuit tradition, the development and sharing of individuals’ songs, was extinguished by fear, and most people converted to Christianity