Synopses & Reviews
When the motto of your village is "never say die," you have a lot to live up to. . . .
At home in Canada's Arctic, Nick Thrasher is an accomplished Inuit hunter at fifteen. About to bring home a caribou for his ailing grandfather, Nick loses the meat to a fearsome creature never before seen in the wild. It's half grizzly, half polar bear. Experts will soon be calling it a "grolar bear."
Returning to his village, Nick receives a letter from the half brother he's never met. A former Grand Canyon river guide, Ryan Powers is now a famous wildlife photographer. He'll soon be coming to Nick's part of the world to raft the remote Firth River in search of huge herds of migrating caribou. Ryan also wants to learn what Inuit hunters are saying about climate change in the Arctic. He invites Nick to come along and help him find the caribou.
Barely down the river, disaster strikes. Nick and Ryan are both thrown into the freezing river and find themselves under a ceiling of solid ice. With nothing but the clothes on his back and the knife on his hip, Nick is up against it in a world of wolves, caribou, and grizzlies. All the while, the monstrous grolar bear stalks the land.
Review
“Nonstop survival adventure.” Kirkus Reviews
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“Purpose driven survival tale…a plot lit up with extremes of privation and deadly danger.” ALA Booklist
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“Turbocharged wilderness survival story.” Horn Book Magazine
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“Exciting…The imagery is truly majestic. It will resonate with kids who have a healthy respect for the awesomeness of nature.” School Library Journal
About the Author
Will Hobbs is the award-winning author of nineteen novels, including
Far North,
Crossing the Wire, and
Take Me to the River.
Never Say Die began with the author's eleven-day raft trip in 2003 down the Firth River on the north slope of Canada's Yukon Territory. Ever since, Will has been closely following what scientists and Native hunters are reporting about climate change in the Arctic. When the first grolar bear turned up in the Canadian Arctic, he began to imagine one in a story set on the Firth River.
A graduate of Stanford University, Will lives with his wife, Jean, in Durango, Colorado.