Eskimo life has adjusted to the long summer day and the long winter night, the severe cold, and the arrival and departure of wildlife. Kupaaq's life is, in many ways, very different from the life of the average child in the lower forty-eight states, but in many ways his is also a universal experience shared by all children.

Jean Craighead George and Wendell Minor flew to Barrow, Alaska to research Arctic Son. There they traveled by dog sled far out on the Arctic sea ice, picnicked on frozen sandwiches, and climbed blue pressure ridges in temperatures well below zero. They also visited Aalak, an Inupiat village leader, who gave the name Kupaaq to Luke, Jean's Arctic-loving grandson.