Vanishing Cultures: Far North

Review
By School Library Journal

A photo essay that gives insight into the Sami culture in Finmark (or Lapland). Reynolds portrays a family working to preserve a slowly dying, nomadic way of life in the harsh land above the Arctic Circle. The documentation of the Utsi family, which includes the parents and two young daughters, begins in early spring when the family rounds up the reindeer to herd them to the high mountains. The full-color photography is striking, and the bond between master and reindeer is very evident. The author’s postscript gives a chilling account of how the Chernobyl nuclear disaster impacted the unsuspecting Samis and affected their centuries-old way of life.