An urgent story of adventure and survival in a warming climate...
This was a wonderful tale on so many levels, and is already being enjoyed by my Y6 pupils in school, who love the mix of suspense, great characters, drama and action it contains.
Without spoiling the story, the plot revolves around a young girl called Bea, whose father's job for an oil company means she moves around schools as his job dictates. When he becomes distracted and secretive about his latest work, an aeroplane trip with him results in Bea being stranded in the frozen Arctic, fighting for survival.
Her survival story then collides with the world and way of life of Yutu, whose own traditions and way of life in his grandmother's village is itself under threat and fighting for survival.
The two together then discover a plot of industrial espionage alongside their fight to survive in a dramatic, pacy story featuring freezing temperatures, snowmobile crashes and hungry polar bears.
Alongside this are messages of climate change, industrial impact on the wild, and the loss of traditional ways of life for the people affected by climate and societal change.
It's a great read...adventure and environment on a par with Katherine Rundell's 'The Explorer' and Michael Morpurgo's 'Kensuke's Kingdom', with the environment and character akin to Hannah Gold's 'The Last Bear'.
Exciting stuff - I loved the messages of resilience, hope and courage the characters displayed, and the plot was twisty enough to keep me reading to find out if Bea's faith in her father was misguided or well-judged as she dodged the shadowy figures attempting to catch her on her journey home.
Thanks to poppy and Pushkin Press for including me on the blog tour for this great book, and for the copy to review.
You can see what others on the tour said by visiting the sites featured below:
Ele Fountain is on Twitter as @EleFountain
You can buy the book via Pushkin Press' website, and see a blog from Ele about the book and her inspiration, here:
Review by Rich Simpson (@richreadalot) May 2021. All opinions are honest and my own.
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