• Age: 12 to 18
• Grade: 6

In The Whale People, young Atlin must one day succeed his father Nit-gass, a great whaling chief of the Hotsath people. The boy trains for his role with the mixture of yearning and apprehension experienced by every youth racing toward adulthood - except that in Atlin's case, his whole community is depending on his success.

With lean, sure-footed prose, Haig-Brown captures the tangled emotions of adolescence, and in the process conveys a vivid portrait of pre-Columbian life on the West Coast. Never preachy or condescending, The Whale People is richly furnished with the material and spiritual mainstays of its characters: canoes, harpoons, animals and "tumanos," the personal magic a great whaler and leader must possess.

"Timeless" is a term too freely bandied about, but seldom has a story so deftly married the moment with the millennia. Written 40 years ago - it was named Book of the Year for Children by the Canadian Library Association in 1964 - it could be set 400 years ago, yet there is not one quaint or dated sentence in it.

Roderick L. Haig-Brown (1908-1976) was a Canadian writer, magistrate and conservationist. A prolific writer, he is the author of twenty-eight books and hundreds of articles, essays and poems. Some of the titles include Saltwater Summer (Governor General Award Winner, 1948), A River Never Sleeps, and Fisherman's Summer. In recognition of his contribution to Canadian environmental literature, the Haig-Brown name has been gifted to a national park near Kamloops, a Canada Council sponsored writer-in-residence retreat near Campbell River, and a mountain on Vancouver Island.

Roderick Haig-Brown's profile page

"...timeless tale..."
-Ron MacIsaac, Lower Island NEWS

Lower Island NEWS

"I am in awe of the beautiful way Haig-Brown communicates a balance of nature and humankind, a dance of respect and wonder; involving all creatures."
-Lian Goodall, The Guelph Mercury

The Guelph Mercury

"...it will be especially enjoyed by boys looking for an enthralling adventure."
-Linda Irvine, Resource Links

Resource Links

The Whale People

The Whale People is a reprint of a classic “coming-of-age” story set in a West Coast Aboriginal whaling village before the European arrival. Fourteen-year-old Atlin must prematurely succeed his father, a great whaling chief who died in the hunt. Slowly learning both the craft and the magic of whaling, Atlin uses his whaling skills and his political shrewdness to marry the daughter of the hostile chief of a neighbouring tribe. Atlin’s acceptance of the spiritual explanation for everything is modified by his family’s experience that spiritual help means nothing without hunting skill. Historical whaling techniques and hunting scenes are described in detail. The Whale People convincingly relates the transformation of Atlin through suffering, hard work and faith from a boy into a brave man.

The Whale People won the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children award in 1964.