The Cormorant Hunter's Wife

By Joan Kane (University of Alaska Press Fairbanks, $14.95)

The blurb: Joan Kane's collection of poetry is inspired by her Inupiaq ancestry. The poems examine the relationship between place and self, considering the arctic landscape and questions of adaptation and resilience.

Excerpt: "I live brokenly and assembled together

"Weakly -- from long bone of the arm, hip

"Rollicking in its socket, and the jaw,

"Its brux. From the lip of a wooden

"Bowl carved from the knot of a limb

"Drifted, my name was given on water

"And laid down like hail upon my tongue.

"It's become a bewilderment of white --

"It snows. It does snow. It is snowing."

Gnome From Nome

By Stephen Cosgrove, illustrated by Robin James (Sasquatch Books, $10.99)

The blurb: In this updated children's story that originally appeared in the '70s, a lonely gnome named Alappuu living on the North Pole travels to Nome because he can't warm himself. Along the way he makes friends.

Excerpt: "Alappuu tried anything and everything you could imagine to get warm.

"He flapped his arms.

"He stomped his feet.

"But the cold inside he could not delete.

" 'Ma-ma-maybe if I shout, the ca-ca-cold will come out,' he chattered, his teeth clattering from the cold. Sure enough, every time he shouted, a cloud of cold would puff from his mouth.

"But still the gnome was bitterly cold from the inside out."

-- Compiled by Matt Sullivan, Anchorage Daily News