North
The acclaimed author of Beast tells the story of 12-year-old Alvin, who heads from Washington, D.C., to the Arctic--a journey that takes him from being a just-on-the-verge-of-trouble runaway to a young man with a future.
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Full details for this title
| Interest Age |
9-12 years |
| Reading Age |
9-12 years |
| Library of Congress |
Runaways - Fiction., Voyages and travels - Fiction., Inuit - Fiction. |
| NBS Text |
School Textbooks & Study Guides: Literature, Arts & Humanities |
| ONIX Text |
Children/juvenile;Primary & secondary/elementary & high school |
|
| Number of Pages |
344 |
| Dimensions |
Width: 165mm
Height: 241mm
Spine: 32mm |
| Weight |
612g |
|
| Dewey Code |
[Fic] |
| Catalogue Code |
Not specified |
Description of this Textbook
Chanelle laughed. You'd never have the guts to get near a polar bear in real life. And you'd never travel that far. You the mamma's boy, I hear. But Chanelle is wrong. Alvin has more guts than even he realizes. And he isn't a mamma's boy. In fact, when his over protective mother goes too far, he leaves home. Where can Alvin go, though? He heads north. He will follow in the footsteps of his hero -- Matthew Henson, the bold Arctic explorer. Alvin will prove that he can take care of himself. Alvin will go north to the deadly cold; north to terrifying, frozen windy expanses, where it's easy to get lost even near shelter; north to polar bears and wolves; north to himself. . . .
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Awards & Reviews
| US Review |
Driven by a yearning he can't articulate but knows is essential to his very being, Alvin, a soft and unsophisticated 12-year-old African-American boy living in Washington, D.C., runs away from his caring but smothering mother and physically declining great grandmother. His goal is to follow in the footsteps of his hero Matthew Henson, a black explorer and co-discoverer of the North Pole, whose description of the fierce beauty of the frozen north has captured his imagination. Traveling by rail and later dog-sledge in the frigid cold, Alvin, who is dogged, resourceful, and has the rare capacity to find friends and create allies, makes it all the way to Canada's Bylot Island, high in the Arctic Circle. There he gains knowledge, maturity, and, ultimately, freedom of spirit, living, working, and learning traditional ways from Idlouk, a wise old half-Inuk hermit. It's an unlikely journey, but Napoli makes it a fascinating one, organically incorporating a wealth of detail about the Arctic and its human and non-human inhabitants. (Fiction. 9+) (Kirkus Reviews) |
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Author's Bio
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