The year is 1909. A motley crew of explorers and vagabonds sets sail for Antarctica aboard the Mystery. The voyage south is long and hard, and tensions between the crew members are severe. Breaking new ground, they set out to conquer the great South Pole. But they do not make it all the way. Instead, they must retreat for their lives. And so begins a year-long trek back to civilization, with every day bringing new risk and new adventure.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
"The call of Antarctica is loud and clear: Go away. You hear it in the groans of colliding ice floes. In the shriek of 200-mile-an-hour winds hurtling down the Transantarctic Mountains. In the thunder of an ice shelf splitting into the sea. In the hostile silence of a darkness that begins in April and ends in June."
And yet, for polar explorers like Jack Winslow, the call is irresistible. Days after his beloved wife's death in May 1909, Jack, his son Colin, and his stepson Andrew, along with a motley crew of sailors, doctors, photographers, and scientists, set out on a journey to the bottom of the earth. During their harrowing expedition, they must confront many horrors in addition to their personal grieving and family disharmony: frostbite, killer whales, deadly ice floes, lack of food, negative-100-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, bottomless crevasses, a mutinous crew. Endurance, loyalty, and humanity are tested, and no man can be sure he'll emerge alive.
Peter Lerangis's exciting novel is packed with thoroughly researched information on the Antarctic and turn-of-the-century ocean travel. While the character development is a little hard to follow--each chapter is told from a different crew member's point of view--the story itself is thrilling. At the conclusion, the explorers (and readers) are left hanging from the proverbial cliff, as the ship becomes trapped between ice floes. (Ages 9 to 13) --Emilie Coulter
Review
Lots of shivering, and not just from the cold, makes this good summer reading, especially on a hot day. -- Detroit Free Press, June 18, 2000
Realistic ... compelling ... [you] see the scariness and excitement of the trip through the eyes of the boys in the story. -- Denver Post, July 18, 2000
Realistic ... compelling ... [you] see the scariness and excitement of the trip through the eyes of the boys in the story. -- Denver Post, July 18, 2000
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More About the Author
Peter Lerangis's books have sold over 4.5 million copies and been translated into 28 languages. Titles include THE SWORD THIEF, THE VIPER'S NEST, one-fourth of VESPERS RISING, and the upcoming THE DEAD OF NIGHT (in the N.Y. Times bestselling series, THE 39 CLUES); the novel SMILER'S BONES (a N. Y. Public Library Best Book for Teens); the SPY X series; the YA thriller WTF; and the upcoming YA novel SOMEBODY, PLEASE TELL ME WHO I AM, written with Harry Mazer. He'll gladly recite the rest of the list if you ask nicely. He's also performed on Broadway, run a marathon, rock-climbed in Yosemite during a 6.1 earthquake, and, with his wife, sprouted and grown two sons in NYC. At the moment he's moving his car for alternate-side-of-the-street parking and will be right back. (Meanwhile, for a longer bio, see http://peterlerangis.com/about-peter/bio/.)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic teen literature,
By David J. Huber "Addicted to books!" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Antarctica: Journey to the Pole (Antarctica (Scholastic)) (Paperback)
And also an awful lot of fun for this adult!Exactly the kind of story I loved as a child, and still love now - kids out in the adult-world braving themselves against nature and most importantly, against their own fears and insecurities. The story is, of course, exciting - a trip to Antarctica in 1909 when such trips were not so easy. The author's realistic use of marine language, situations, and technology of the time adds to the authenticity of the story. What I appreciate so much about it, and what always drew me in as a child to stories like these, is that the youth in the story are not just helpless ignorant children, nor are they brainy super-kids that never seem to be wrong. They are very real teens - struggling with who they are and with their family and who and what is their sense of authority. In the course of the story, they learn and grow. Yes, they end up sometimes saving the day, but not in a trite way - when they save the day it is because they have grown past a fear, or grown into a sense of confidence in their own self, and taken a big psychological chance by expressing their authority, and that makes the situation real to the reader, and also shows the reader, especially the children readers for whom the book is intended, that what they are experiencing in their lives is real, and scary, and sometimes terrible, but that they can grow beyond it, and they can have hope that they will go beyond who they are now. Giving youth a sense of hope, and a sense that they are smart enough and good enough to make it in the world, and also showing them they will learn and grow into adulthood is so important, and books like this are great helpers. Although he book is written with a vocabularly and a sentence structure geared toward younger readers, the author does not "dumb down" to youth level, which is great. It's an awfully quick read for an adult, quicker even than Harry Potter prose, but for a youth, it's gotta be just about right - long enough to challenge, not so long that the child reader will get bogged down in detail and become completely lost in the narrative. I also appreciate the reality of it. Some reviewers have commented that it's maybe a little too realistic or grim or dark, but come on people - it's life. I'm glad my parents didn't feel the need to "protect" me, leaving me to grow into a functional adult human being. I'm glad Lerangis had the courage to include the scene of a man having his gangrenous feet axed off and of dogs dying in the cold, etc. Kids aren't stupid, and exposing them to real world issues isn't going to turn them into psychotics - it will turn them into normal adults who understand that a lot of stuff is dangerous, and who fear things realistically. Not that we need to add extra-realistic stuff to shock our kids, but we can't sugarcoat the world for them, either. People who are frostbit get their parts cut off. Dogs and people die in the cold. Ships get smashed by ice. People fall overboard. Sometimes people walk off into the snow, and are never seen again. Two last quick notes: I am glad that Lerangis popped in some Greek from the Greek character. Not in a way that the reader will have to know it to understand the story, but it adds a bit more realism, and I think showing the young English reader some foreign words is helpful to broaden their horizons. I am also glad that he included a few literature references - he mentions the teen characters reading Jack London and some other actually existing meat-world writings, which will hopefully drive the reader to the library or bookstore. What a great (perhaps sneaky?) way to expose young readers to our great literature. The teen characters are also shown reading other books in order to learn about Antarctica, how to navigate, and to learn other things they will need for the trip. Lerangis' last pages in the book are a rarity: a bibliography (in a child's book!) and a list of web-page resources about Antarctica and about the original adventurers who first set foot on it's icy fields of blowing death. A great book, certainly appropriate for younger readers. I'm very impressed, and will be passing this on to my young relatives. (great job, Peter!)
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Thrill Not to be Missed,
By A Customer
This review is from: Antarctica: Journey to the Pole (Antarctica (Scholastic)) (Paperback)
What a thrill it wasto read this book. Such adventure. I got it for my fourteenth birthday and I can't wait to read the second volume. Thank you, Mr. Lerangis. You're my new favorite author!
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A thrilling adventure based on a true story.,
This review is from: Antarctica: Journey to the Pole (Antarctica (Scholastic)) (Paperback)
In 1909, after the death of his second wife, Jack Winslow andhis sixteen-year-old son Colin and fifteen-year-old stepson Andrew,along with a crew, set out the explore Antartica. Colin and Andrew resent each other, there are arguments among the crew, and the journey is long and difficult. And once they land, it's an even longer journey across Antarctica, that not everyone that sets out will survive. And back on the ship, Colin must deal with a mutiny among the small crew left behind. This was an excellant historical adventure story, different from many others for kids and teens. However, I do not agree with the classification of the book as one for ages 9-12. With the older characters and a story that would appeal more to older readers, this book would be better classified as one for readers 12 and up. I think teenagers who enjoy this type of book would be the best audience.
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