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On Thin Ice No
one in the tiny,
troubled hamlet of
Ikiqtúqjuaq has seen a
polar bear in decades.
But when a teenager’s
dismembered body is
discovered on a nearby
ice road, everyone fears
polar bears have
returned. The community
is thrown into chaos as
another
suspected bear attack
sparks a flurry of
bullets during a
blinding four-day
blizzard. Was it a real
or phantom bear? No one
can say for sure.
Ashley Anowiak is swept into
this storm of confusion
by her special link with
polar bears expressed
through the magic of her
art and the terror of
her dreams. She finds
herself on the trail of
Nanurluk, a giant bear
that has haunted her
people for thousands of
years. Ashley’s bear
hunt leads from the
frozen catacombs beneath
Ikiqtúqjuaq to the
jumbled ice fields
covering the Arctic
Ocean. As she closes in
on the bear, Ashley’s
inner and outer worlds
are torn apart, leaving
her desperate for any
stability she can find.
This is the story of a
gifted northern youth
struggling to find her
true home in a
fast-changing Arctic,
where culture, climate
and landscape seem to be
crumbling all around
her. |
“Bastedo’s passion for the
north leaps off the page. A
page-turner...Shot-gunned with
one nail-biting happening after
another, from floods, to
monster-storms, to bear attacks,
even a jumbo jet hurtling out of
the sky...A fine piece of work
from a northern writer.”
-- CBC Radio North
“A book unlike most teen
fiction currently on the market.
Polar bear dreams, shaman and
ice figure largely in this
northern story that is part new
age hip, part teenage cynical,
part ecological cautionary tale,
and part ancient wisdom. I loved
it. A stunning book which has as
much to say to teens as it does
to those of us who are over 50.”
-- readingkidsbooks.blogspot.com
Visit
www.onthinice.ca for
extensive student
and teacher resources on
climate change.
"Logging on to any
single page of this Web
site will show how
Canadians are so far
ahead of most Americans
in thinking - and acting
- on the global threat."
-- The Daily Astorian
(Oregon) |
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