PRIOR DISTRIBUTION - Originally published in 1990 by Annick Press as Baseball Bats for Christmas - Sold 18,900 copies of original edition - For the 2017 edition, both text and art will be minimally revised; there will be a new cover and interior design, and a link on the copyright page (tbd) leading readers to an audio version of the story, as read by the author MARKET Stores and libraries with strong interest in Native stories; Christmas sales • National review mailing • Review mailing to online media contacts, bloggers • Review mailing to Native organizations/publications • E-galley on NetGalley.com • Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Annick blog • Catalist Digital Catalogue

Life in the high Arctic is beautifully captured in this classic picture book by award-winning Inuit author Michael Kusugak. The year is 1955 and Arvaarluk and his friends watch as Rocky Parsons lands his plane on the ice in Repulse Bay, a tiny community “smack dab on the Arctic Circle.” Having never seen trees before, the children try to guess what the six green spindly things are that Rocky delivers. One of the boys has a brilliant idea: why not use them as baseball bats? Full of vibrant, richly-colored illustrations, this story gives young readers ages 5 to 8 a glimpse into a time, place, and culture that may be new to them. The Arctic way of life is realistically portrayed by the author, whose narrative voice resonates with the lilt of his native language.