Saturday, December 3, 2011

Ice Island by Shary Shahan

Tatum lived in Alaska and had dreams of going on the Iditarod Trail with her Dad.  She even acquired her own lead dog, despite her Mother's wishes.  But she has no idea just how treacherous the Alaska landscape can be and what it's like to be caught in a bad storm.  She'll learn...

Delacorte Press allowed me to read a ebook of this story for review (thank you).  The book will be published on January 10th, so you can pick up a copy then.

Tatum's Dad works away from home for four months at a time.  Tatum's Mom does odd jobs to keep herself busy and give them some money to live on while he's gone.  Tatum daydreams about sledding and winning races.

When her Mom gets a job in a lodge on an island, Tatum goes along and brings her new dog with her.  Once there, she has a burning desire to go exploring with the sled found in storage and her lead dog.  When she makes a rookie mistake, the whole village knows about it and laughs at her.  She's mortified and wants to improve her skills.  When Cole invites her to race against him to give him some practice, she jumps at the chance.

What starts as a fun outing in good weather suddenly turns deadly when the weather changes and they caught out on the trail during the storm.

This is a tale of survival.  The odds are against them, but neither of them is willing to give up.  Any young adult that likes to read adventure stories will enjoy this read.  They will also learn some lessons from the story about the dangers of Alaskan ice and snow, polar bears and wolves, and how a silly mistake can kill you.  

I enjoyed this story, why not share this story with your own adventurer?

Happy reading.


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