Synopses & Reviews
The eagerly-awaited sequel to the best-selling
The Glass Sentence -- a historical, fantastical adventure perfect for fans of Philip Pullman!
It is the summer of 1892, one year since Sophia Tims and her friend Theo embarked upon the dangerous adventure that rewrote the map of the world. Since their return home to Boston, she has continued searching for clues to her parents disappearance, combing archives and libraries, grasping at even the most slender leads. Theo has apprenticed himself to an explorer in order to follow those leads across the countrybut one after another proves to be a dead end.
Then Sophia discovers that a crucial piece of the puzzle exists in a foreign Age. At the same time, Theo discovers that his old life outside the law threatens to destroy the new one he has built with Sophia and her uncle Shadrack. What he and Sophia do not know is that their separate discoveries are intertwined, and that one remarkable person is part of both.
There is a city that holds all of the answersbut it cannot be found on any map. Surrounded by plague, it can only be reached by a journey through darkness and chaos, which is at the same time the plagues cure: The Golden Specific.
Review
“Lyrical language actively engages the senses, plunging readers into a captivating landscape that challenges the boundaries of reality….This imaginative novel offers plenty of action.” Booklist (starred review)
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“Readers will find this a triply compelling tale: for its slow revelation of a deranged soul; for its young narrator, who turns out to be tougher than she or anyone else supposes; and for its wildly hostile setting, which quickly turns the secret expedition into a frantic struggle to survive.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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“What makes the book truly stand out is Syms unique personality... and, through it all, McCaughreens inspired wordplay and powerful imagery.” The Horn Book
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“...the ratcheting terror, thrilling double-crosses and gorgeously articulated star character -- Antarctica itself -- combine for a girls adventure yarn of the first order.” Publishers Weekly
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“This is an amazing work...there is no question that McCaughrean is a fine writer.” KLIATT
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RAVES FOR THE GLASS SENTENCE
A New York Times Bestseller
An IndieBound National Bestseller
A Summer/Fall 2014 Indies Introduce New Voices Selection
A Top Ten Kids Next Selection
A Publishers Weekly Flying Start
A Washington Post Summer Book Club Selection
A Junior Library Guild Selection
One of Publishers Weeklys Best Summer Reads
An Amazon Summer 2014 Reading Selection
An Amazon Top 20 Childrens/YA Book of 2014
An ABC Best Book of 2014
* “Brilliant in concept, breathtaking in scale and stellar in its worldbuilding; this is a world never before seen in fiction . . . Wholly original and marvelous beyond compare.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
* “A thrilling, time-bending debut . . . Its a cracking adventure, and Grove bolsters the action with commentary on xenophobia and government for hire, as well as a fascinating system of map magic.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
*“Stellar . . richly layered and emotionally engaging from the first page through to the intriguing cliffhanger end.”—BCCB, starred review
* "A mind-blowing debut . . . The bookmaking behind this first novel is as elegant as the maps within it." —Shelf Awareness, starred review
“Wonderful. This author's imagination is just amazing.” - Nancy Pearl on NPR.org
“I am in no doubt about the energy of S.E. Grove as a full-fledged, pathfinding fantasist. I look forward to the next installment to place upon the pile. Intensely.” - Gregory Maguire, The New York Times Book Review
“Not since Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass have I seen such an original and compelling world built inside a book.”—Megan Whalen Turner, New York Times best-selling author of A Conspiracy of Kings
“Absolutely marvelous. Its the best book Ive read in a long time.”—Nancy Farmer, National Book Award-winning author of The House of the Scorpion
"A page-turner . . So imaginative."—Meghan Cox Gurdon, The Wall Street Journal
“Exuberantly imagined [and] exquisite."—Elizabeth Wein, New York Times best-selling author of Code Name Verity
Synopsis
When her uncle takes her on a dream trip to the Antarctic wilderness, Sym's obsession with Captain Oates and the doomed expedition becomes a reality as she herself is soon in a fight for her life in some the harshest terrain on the planet.
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
Taken to Antarctica by the man she thinks of as her uncle for what she believes to be a vacation, Symone--a troubled fourteen-year-old--discovers that he is dangerously obsessed with seeking Symmes's Hole, an opening that supposedly leads into the centerof a hollow Earth.Taken to Antarctica by the man she thinks of as her uncle for what she believes to be a vacation, Symone--a troubled fourteen-year-old--discovers that he is dangerously obsessed with seeking Symmes's Hole, an opening that supposedly leads into the centerof a hollow Earth.
Synopsis
The events of The Glass Sentence transformed the world, as well as the life of 14-year-old Sophia Tims. Since then, shes continued searching for clues to her parents' disapperance, combing Bostons archives and libraries. Across the country, her friend Theo is searching, too, as an explorers apprentice. When Sophia learns that her mothers diaryand the story of her parents fateis in a foreign archive, she makes a split-second decision and sets off on the journey with an almost complete stranger. As soon as Theo learns she is gone, he sets off on a voyage of his own. Written in alternating voices, studded with extracts from Sophias mothers diary, and filled with all manner of wonders, including startlingly new kinds of maps, The Golden Specific is that wonderful thinga second book that is even better than the first.
About the Author
Geraldine 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.