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More copies of this ISBN:The White Darknessby Geraldi Mccaughrean
Staff Pick
Sym Wates is obsessed with everything Antarctic — especially the doomed explorer Titus Oates, who died in a 1911 expedition to the South Pole. She is thrilled when her uncle Victor arranges to take her to Antarctica, but her delight doesn't last; it turns out that Uncle Victor has a strange ulterior motive for the trip... and that some of Sym's fellow travelers aren't who they claim to be — especially Uncle Victor. Geraldine McCaughrean's The White Darkness weaves history, family drama, and adventure into a thrilling tale. Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:I have been in love with Titus Oates for quite a while now—which is ridiculous, since he's been dead for ninety years. But look at it this way. In ninety years I'll be dead, too, and the age difference won't matter. Sym is not your average teenage girl. She is obsessed with the Antarctic and the brave, romantic figure of Captain Oates from Scott's doomed expedition to the South Pole. In fact, Oates is the secret confidant to whom she spills all her hopes and fears. But Sym's uncle Victor is even more obsessed—and when he takes her on a dream trip into the bleak Antarctic wilderness, it turns into a nightmarish struggle for survival that will challenge everything she knows and loves. In her first contemporary young adult novel, Carnegie Medalist and three-time Whitbread Award winner Geraldine McCaughrean delivers a spellbinding journey into the frozen heart of darkness. Review:"Symone, 14, narrates McCaughrean's (Peter Pan in Scarlet) tale about the trip of a lifetime gone horribly wrong. Hearing-impaired and unpopular, Sym appreciates the attentions of 'Uncle' Victor, her dead father's business partner and the family's seeming benefactor. Victor, an eccentric genius obsessed with proving the discredited Hollow Earth theories of John Symmes, has fostered in Sym a lifelong fascination with Antarctica. Indeed, Sym's only companion is an imaginary friend, Lawrence 'Titus' Oates, who perished in 1912 during Captain Robert Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. Sym is thrilled when Victor spirits her off for an impromptu trip to Paris, which morphs — incredibly — into a trek to Antarctica, as the two join a crowd of rich tourists for a guided look at 'The Ice's' astounding landscape. Victor aligns with Manfred Bruch, a purported Norwegian filmmaker, and his son. Guests and guides alike become mysteriously ill, and the tour is cut short, but the plane intended to return the group to safety explodes. After Victor's 'nice cup of tea' induces sleep in everyone else, the four abscond on Victor's mad quest for Symmes's Hole. The heroine's relentless self-deprecation, a necessary element of her unconditional acceptance of Victor, is nonetheless somewhat overplayed. But the ratcheting terror, thrilling double-crosses and gorgeously articulated star character — Antarctica itself — combine for a girl's adventure yarn of the first order. Ages 12-up." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Synopsis:The first contemporary young adult novel by Carnegie Medalist McCaughrean is a spellbinding journey in which a dream trip is turned into a mad obsession, a web of lies, and a nightmarish struggle for survival. About the AuthorGeraldine McCaughrean is the winner of England's most prestigious children's book award, the Carnegie Medal, for A Pack of Lies. She is the first-ever three-time winner of the Whitbread Children's Book Award, most recently for Not the End of the World, which is also a School Library Journal Best Book and was named an Outstanding International Book by the United States Board on Books for Young People/Children's Book Council. The White Darkness was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. Her other recent books include The Stones Are Hatching; The Kite Rider, an ALA Notable Children's Book, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and a Nestlé Smarties Book Prize Bronze Medal winner, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal; and Stop the Train!, an ALA Notable Children's Book, recipient of a Highly Commended Carnegie Medal Citation, one of Publishers Weekly's Best Children's Books, and a Parent's Guide to Children's Media Award winner. Ms. McCaughrean lives in Berkshire, England. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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