The White Darkness

The White Darkness

By Geraldine McCaughrean

HarperCollins, 2005

ISBN 0060890355

369 pages

4.5 (out of 5) STARS

Plot Summary

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.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/709054.The_White_Darkness

Critical Evaluation

This was one of my favorite books I read this summer. It is very unusual with odd characters and an odd plot. After reading some reviews I can see that most people loved it in its oddness or just could not get into it. The unusualness of the novel is what kept me intrigued to the very end.

Reader’s Annotation

Sym loves everything about the Antarctic and Captain Oates but her world view is changed when she actually visits the Antarctic with her uncle.

Information about the author

I have a very clever older brother called Neil. When I was young, everything he did, I wanted to do. So when, at 14, he had a book published, that became a great ambition of mine. I was also very shy and timid. (I still am.) The one place I dared to have adventures was in my imagination, writing stories. Dad was a fireman, Mum was a teacher. We did not have television at home until I was 9, so you can imagine how exciting it was when we got one.

As I grew up, I went on writing - always and everywhere - never really expecting to get published. I did a lot of jobs - secretary, teacher, journalist, sub-editor. But I wrote as I travelled to and fro to work: it was my hobby. Now I stay home all day and write. It's great, but it still seems odd to earn a living by having so much fun.

http://www.geraldinemccaughrean.co.uk/about.htm

Genre

adventure

Curriculum Ties

geography. history.

Booktalking Ideas

*What would you do to survive if you were stranded in the Antarctic?

Reading Level

age 13 and up

Challenge Issues

N/A

Why Included?

I found this book on the Salt Lake County library list of good adventure reads for young adults. It definitely was a good read!