Synopses & Reviews
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
“...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
Review
“This is an amazing work...there is no question that McCaughrean is a fine writer.” KLIATT
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)
Review
“What makes the book truly stand out is Syms unique personality... and, through it all, McCaughreens inspired wordplay and powerful imagery.” The Horn Book
Review
“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)
Synopsis
Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature
"Completely gripping." --People
"Dazzling."--The Observer
Geraldine McCaughrean--two-time Carnegie Medalist for Where the World Ends and Pack of Lies--takes readers on a spellbinding journey into the frozen heart of darkness with this lyrical, riveting, and imaginative young adult novel.
Symone Sym Wates 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.
--KLIATT
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.