Orphans in the Sky is a picture book that tells a story about a brother and sister who are orphans in a long ago Arctic village. The older brother and younger sister are out on the land looking for small game because the people are hungry. But while they search for food the village has decided to move camp. Inadvertently the orphans are overlooked and the people leave without them. Brother and sister return to find the camp gone. Alone again they try to think how they will survive and consider living with cousins such as the caribou or the seas. But each cousin animal has unique characteristics that prevent the children from surviving in these habitats. Then younger sister thinks it would be possible to live in the night sky with the stars. So the orphans take the only material objects they have and begin to find their new home in the sky. The flint younger sister uses makes a bright spark that travels across the dark night sky. Older brother takes the old sealskin and it crackled with a bang. The pair laughed and made the light and noises again. They had so much fun playing in their new home that they forgot the life they once had on earth. Even the returning cries of their village family could not persuade them to return. The orphans realized that the sky world was now home with the sun as their father, the moon their mother, and the Northern Lights and stars as their brothers and sisters. The pair brought lightening and thunders to the sky world. The village members heard the orphans each autumn when Thunder and Lightning came out to play in the sky. Audience: Ages 4-8.
