Ice [Mass Market Paperback]

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1998

Can the truth thaw Chrissa's frozen heart?

It's been three years since Chrissa's father walked out of her life. Too angry even to speak to her mother, Chrissa is obsessed with finding the answers to her questions: Why did her father leave? Why does she never hear from him? And is it somehow her fault, for not being the daughter he wanted her to be?

Now, unable to deal with Chrissa's silence, her mother has sent her away from New York City home to spend a year in the country with her grandmother. Perhaps in Gram's house, in the rural community which her father grew up, Chrissa will discover the secret of his disappearance.

Instead, Chrissa finds more secrets and suspicions. And, surprisingly, she finds strength she never knew she had. Strength she will need when she must confront the most devastating secret of all.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Newbery Medalist Naylor offers the story of a teenage girl with a frozen heart; mourning her father's disappearance, she goes to live with her grandmother in the country, only to discover her own strength and her father's secret. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 6^-8. Thirteen-year-old Chrissa and her mother don't communicate. Chrissa misses her father, whom she hasn't seen in three years, and her mother won't talk about him. When her mother sends Chrissa to upstate New York to live with her paternal grandmother for a year, Chrissa initially misses her New York City apartment and urban school. Gradually she adjusts and then thrives in the country, learning about herself from the natural environment and her friendship with Thad. The engrossing plot involves Chrissa's search for her father's identity and whereabouts, the beginnings of her first romantic relationship, and the growth she experiences in developing emotional attachments to family and friends. There are two subplots: one concerns Sister Harmony, a dishonest itinerant preacher who victimizes Chrissa's grandmother; the other Chrissa's baby-sitting relationship with two young children, whom she rescues from their unstable father. Although the second subplot somewhat stretches the novel's credibility, Naylor has created realistic, appealing characters whose emotional depth and interactions will keep readers' attention. Merri Monks --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers (February 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689818726
• ISBN-13: 978-0689818721
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,181,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I guess I've been writing for about as long as I can remember. Telling stories, anyway, if not writing them down. I had my first short story published when I was sixteen, and wrote stories to help put myself through college, planning to become a clinical psychologist. By the time I graduated with a BA degree, however, I decided that writing was really my first love, so I gave up plans for graduate school and began writing full time.

I'm not happy unless I spend some time writing every day. It's as though pressure builds up inside me, and writing even a little helps to release it. On a hard-writing day, I write about six hours. Tending to other writing business, answering mail, and just thinking about a book takes another four hours. I spend from three months to a year on a children's book, depending on how well I know the characters before I begin and how much research I need to do. A novel for adults, because it's longer, takes a year or more. When my work is going well, I wake early in the mornings, hoping it's time to get up. When the writing is hard and the words are flat, I'm not very pleasant to be around.

Getting an idea for a book is the easy part. Keeping other ideas away while I'm working on one story is what's difficult. My books are based on things that have happened to me, things I have heard or read about, all mixed up with imaginings. The best part about writing is the moment a character comes alive on paper, or when a place that existed only in my head becomes real. There are no bands playing at this moment, no audience applauding--a very solitary time, actually--but it's what I like most. I've now had more than 120 books published, and about 2000 short stories, articles and poems.

I live in Bethesda, Maryland, with my husband, Rex, a speech pathologist, who's the first person to read my manuscripts when they're finished. Our sons, Jeff and Michael, are grown now, but along with their wives and children, we often enjoy vacations together in the mountains or at the ocean. When I'm not writing, I like to hike, swim, play the piano and attend the theater.

I'm lucky to have my family, because they have contributed a great deal to my books. But I'm also lucky to have the troop of noisy, chattering characters who travel with me inside my head. As long as they are poking, prodding, demanding a place in a book, I have things to do and stories to tell.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Beginning of the Thaw, April 6, 2002

By 

Laura Lynn Walsh "gt-teacher" (Fairbanks, AK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ice (Hardcover)

...

One of the things I liked best about the book was the gradual development of Chrissa's character. Her motives were conflicted, as in real life, but minor triumphs gradually blossomed into real convictions and abilities.

I also enjoyed the boy-girl sub-plot. It is nice to see teens becoming friends before they get involved in a boy-girl relationship.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable book to read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN EXCELLENT BOOK, October 8, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Ice (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of my favorite books! The emotions, characters, and surroundings are described so well, it's almost like you're actually living with Chrissa in her Grandma's house! I really enjoyed this book. It's packed full of emotion, suspense, and mystery. I LOVED THIS BOOK! If you enjoy reading well-written books that are hard to get off your mind, YOU'RE IN FOR A REAL TREAT! This is one book you just CAN NOT MISS!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Life of Chrissa, April 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Ice (Hardcover)

A Review by Rachel

Chrissa Jennings is a thirteen year old confused teenager. Why her father left her three years ago is still a question to her. She has failed to talk to her mother because she just wouldnt understand, so she is sent to her grandmothers out in the country. Maybe this will be where Chrissa can find the answers to her questions, instead she finds out a whole lot more than she bargained for. Will she be able to find out the real truth while trying to help someone close to her?

This book was definitely by far one of the best books I have ever read. The characters were so real and fun filled that it was hard for me to ever put the book down. Every page had something new and exciting in it. For example when Chrissa was walking home from school down the dirt road to her grandmothers a white Buick came at her at almost fifty miles an hour as if they were trying to kill her. When she told her grandmother she thought it was Sister Harmonys nephew she was thought to be a liar. Also this book has so many twists and turns that you never know what is actually the truth until the end. For example when Chrissa is talking to Sister Harmonys nephew she almost thought that it was her father, but since her grandmother is holding something back you never find out who and where her father is until the very end. This book is very interesting and well written and very realistic because all the events that take place could actually happen.

This book was a awesome book! Its not one of the books that you have to read for a little bit and then get into it the excitement starts in the first chapter and ends in the last line of the book! Ice is on of those books that when reading it, it actually feels like you are with the characters in the book while everything is happening. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves to read a fun filled book, cant put down, exciting book. This book is such a fantastic book and anyone who reads it will enjoy it!