The White Darkness

McCaughrean, G. (2007). The White Darkness. New York: HarperTempest. ISBN: 0060890355 This Printz award winner was first published in England in 2005 by British author Geraldine McCaughrean. This beautiful and challenging read takes readers and fourteen-year-old Simone on an unexpected and arduous odyssey to Antarctica. The 373 page novel features wonderful characterizations, from the masterfully depicted insanity of one character, to the betrayal of a love interest and then to the well-researched portrayal of the historic figure of Captain Oates as an imagined friend and coping mechanism. The novel features references to Greek myths, historic facts and some works of literature that McCaughrean has delved into before in her previous writings. This book is challenging not only due to its use of vocabulary, but also because of the dangerous quest naïve Simone is recruited to make. About midway through my reading of the book, I found myself asking, "Is it over yet? Please let this end." but at the same time, I did not want it to end. Activities to do with the book: Research projects on Antarctica, Antarctic explorers, paranoia, coping mechanisms, antibiotics, pollution, Symmes's Theory etc. Dramatic inquiry with visiting the Antarctic. Favorite Quotes: "I have been in love with Titus Oates for quote a while now--which is ridiculous, since he's been dead for ninety years. But look at it this way. In ninety years I'll be dead, too, and then the age difference won't matter" (p. 1). "I'm planning on being older in a year or two" (p. 363). For more of my reviews, visit sjkessel.blogspot.com.

Fourteen-year-old Symone struggles to survive in the coldest desert on earth, Antarctica. Adding to her trials are her traveling companions: a fanatic "uncle" obsessed with finding an entrance to the hollow earth and two confidence men. With friends like these, it's no wonder that she relies on the companion of her imagination, Captain Lawrence Oates, who died on Scott's expedition to the South Pole in 1912, for sound guidance. This is a ripping good adventure and survival story that thrills the reader with enough spooky chills to simulate the Antarctic cold. It well deserves The Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature that it received in 2008 from the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association.

Stunning, gorgeously written, suspenseful, gripping, terrifying. I can't think of enough adjectives to sing this books praises. I stayed up reading until I couldn't keep my eyes open. Then I picked it up over my breakfast cereal. The story begins with Sym, our 14-year-old protaganist, embarking on a trip to France from England with her mother and "Uncle" Victor. There is a very little bit of backdrop to this: We learn that Sym's father has recently died, the Uncle Victor is a friend of the family, and that Sym has a vivid inner imagination where she often withdraws to talk to Titus Oates, a famous (and dead) Arctic explorer who Sym idolizes. At the airport Sym's mother cannot find her passport, and Victor and Sym go ahead without her. After this the story develops quickly, and the reader is given a spark of unease and distrust about "genius" Uncle Victor. As it progresses, you see Sym begin to have questions, to doubt, and then not trust her own instincts. After all, how can she doubt her Uncle Victor, her surrogate father, the self-proclaimed genius, the man who loves her more than her own father? As this smart, shy 14 year old grapples with complex and bewildering adult behavior, not letting herself ask the questions that are begging to be asked, we the audience are shown the quick unraveling of a bizzare, pitiful and utterly insane plot by Uncle Victor to whisk Sym away to Antarctica where his life's work is awaiting to be realized. There is a horror in this survival story that is difficult to describe. Uncle Victor's mad obsession, when it is finally revealed to Sym, is so bizarre and absurd, that it would be laughable if its outcome wasn't so deadly. The author's description of the environment is rich and vivid, conveying both the astonishing beauty of the ice as well as its unforgiving, desolate and treacherous nature. Antarctica could almost be another planet, its atmopshere is so unsustainable for human habitation. The winds, the snow, the distortions of light and sound, along with the Captain Ahab-like mania of her pathetic uncle, make Sym's fight for survival nightmarish, isolated and surreal. I felt cold for hours after I finished it.

Fourteen-year-old Symone is obsessed with Antarctic exploration. Ever since the death of her father, she has read every book and watched every movie she can find about Antarctica. She is particularly enamored with Capt. Lawrence "Titus" Oates, one of the explorers lost in the doomed Scott expedition. Titus is her companion and confidante, an imaginary friend who fills in for her grieving family and distant friends. Outside of Titus, the only person to take an interest in Sym's life is her Uncle Victor, a family friend who has cared for the family since her father's death. Uncle Victor feeds Sym's interest in Antarctica and arranges for a trip to the frozen continent. There, Sym must face the White Darkness, a phenomena of the polar summer where the sun never truly sets and the only indication of night is white, unmarred by shadow. Sym identifies with the purity, isolation and silence of the white continent. She sees herself as particularly suited to a place that others see as dead: "God sketched Antarctica, then erased most of it again, in the hope a better idea would strike Him." Sym observes, "At the center is a blank whiteness where the planet isn't finished. It's the address for Nowhere...it mesmerized me. The idea of it took me in thrall. It was so empty, so blank, so clean, so dead. Surely, if I was ever to set foot down there, even I might finally exist. Surely, in this Continent of Nothingness, anything --- anyone --- had to be hugely alive by comparison!" Sym does not know that she is a pawn in a larger conspiracy, subject to the fanatical beliefs of one man. Uncle Victor is obsessed with his own theories about discovery and becomes unhinged. He is less concerned with their ability to survive than in securing his place in history. Nasty secrets start to emerge as they travel across the ice. Sym must choose between trusting her uncle and listening to the inner voice she has always regarded as imaginary. THE WHITE DARKINESS is told entirely from Sym's point of view, offering her wry observations of the other travelers and sharing her expertise on the subject of the Arctic. Author Geraldine McCaughrean's biggest challenge is convincing the reader that a smart girl like Sym would be taken in by the suspicious circumstances of her trip with Uncle Victor. McCaughrean succeeds by invoking other polar explorers, many of whom might be regarded as madmen, making discovery at the expense of their own lives. The juxtaposition of Sym's adventure next to the Scott expedition --- which McCaughrean wisely summarizes in an appendix at the end of the book --- asks if death is too high a price to pay for discovery. The irony of the Scott expedition was that, as they chose to push on to discover the South Pole knowing they were unlikely to return, another explorer, Roald Almundsen, already had beaten them to the Pole by two weeks and lived to tell the tale. Had the Scott expedition survived, they would not have been the first to reach the Pole.

Let yourself be surprised by the beauty and terror of Antarctica, and by the heartrending adventures of Symone. Surprises along the road around every corner. I enjoyed every minute of it, especially as it is written in a beautiful style..