Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083

Jackson Jhin Houston, Texas Surviving Antarctica, is a thriller and a hard to put down book. Andrea White takes you into a wonderful adventure with action, suspense, and excitement. Her writing makes stories come alive, and really makes you want to go to Antarctica, with Robert, Billy, Grace, Polly, and Andrew. The book is so good that it is impossible to stop reading. This is the best book I have read in a long time, and I'm looking forward to some more great books from Mrs. White. -age 11

The year is 2083, and television rules the world (even more so than in 2005). Kids don't go to school anymore; they stay home and watch EduTV for their education. At least until they are 14. Then the rich kids go on to high school and college, while the poor attempt to find a job, any job, though there isn't much available. They live in crowded shack towns and eat processed food chips with flavors like broccoli and chicken. Life is hard and bleak for these kids, with few comforts and fewer opportunities. The only possible happiness has to come from within (which everyone knows is where true happiness comes from anyway), because there's certainly not much pleasure otherwise. The poor kids do have one, very slim chance of getting to college and finding a good job, and that's through the scholarship lottery system. A very few get lucky; most don't. So when a reality TV show offers 14-year-olds an opportunity at a big money prize, thousands jump at the chance to apply. "Historical Survivor" is a favorite program on EduTV. Contestants participate in recreated historical situations like the Civil War and The Alamo, right down to every dangerous detail, including the risk of injury and even death. This special teen edition puts five teenagers in Antarctica on a remake of Robert Scott's race to the South Pole in 1912. Polly, Grace, Robert, Andrew and Billy all apply for different reasons, with different hopes and dreams. Each is chosen because of a specific and special talent he or she possesses. Then they ship out to the frozen and hostile world of Antarctica armed with the same supplies and equipment that Scott's expedition had back in 1912. Scott's men didn't survive. Will this group of 14-year-olds be able to? Author Andrea White leads this page-turning adventure with creativity and excitement. She sprinkles in accurate and informative details with the story that will have readers learning a bit of history while having an awesome journey through their imagination.    --- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author

This book, Surviving Antartica Reality TV 2083, is truly stunning. It expresses the feelings that Robert F. Scott had, and his team, when trying to complete this mission to the pole. The book is about a reality TV show called;Historical Survivor,Antartica. On the show the kids have depots of food fifty, then twenty-five miles apart.There are no camera crews on the show. The footage is being recorded from the contestants eye's. The characters are completely original right down to the couch potato, then hero, Andrew. When i read this book I had such a feeling of care for these kids freezing in another world, a well written novel. I recommend this book to readers of all ages. It is not just for kids. Adults will enjoy this book because of the way the author has crafted the journey to the South Pole with the kids she created. It's a real page turner that keeps you rooting for thesee resourceful, adventures teenagers. The descriptions of the future are belivable enough to make the reader want to take immeadiate steps to preserve all the good things in our lives we take for granted. In truth, I ate this book up like a bag of chocobombs. ~Alex Bennett

I thought this (new genre to me) Hi Sci adventure would be perfect for my nephews (9, 10 & 15). Then, I read it and was surprised to find myself: a) so won over to a genre I'd had no interest in (shamefully, I admit I read no history nor science outside of my field of child psychiatry); b) caring tenderly about fictitious characters in a made-up future, with whom I had little in common (but I did! I welled up with their need for each other, their compassionate, reaching-across-chasm-like sacrifices and their flow of spontaneous gratitude in the end); and c)laughing out loud (like at Hot Sauce's promised congressional interrogation-ad-infinitum or that black market t-shirt!). Because of the superb pacing of the second half of the book, and that great, swooping (I should have expected that sudden appearance at page 292, but I didn't) accelerated climax, I submit that Ms. White has pioneered her own genre "My Sci Fi." It reads like a Mystery; only with the murder not at the beginning, but looming. Or is it a "cautionary tale" with a warming balm of hope? Can hot-headed indignation plus goodness plus empathy plus The People really be the formula to save us from The System? How ironic that Ms. White skewers EduEntertainment while producing a paragon of that hybrid! She insinuates such a (modern) virtuous lesson without a whiff of sanctimony or naivete. Reminding us of the essentials of hope and interdependence and the (undeniably, ultimately Real) yearning to bridge out of our existential aloneness. Ms. White, (like her Steve),makes a difference. I think she's given kids such a palatable tonic they'll gobble it up like Chocobombs. Mark Leifeste,MD Boulder, CO

When I bought the book, I never expected to stay us half the night reading it. White grabs you early with the descriptions of the children, then keeps the story fast paced and filled with historical references to the original expedition. As the children grow in character, you are at the edge of the page rooting for their sucess, both as explorers and as people. I would love to read more about their exploits. A sequel?