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Topic: Frozen Worlds

Chapter book

Do you like exploring, animals and adventure? Then join The Adventure Club! A new illustrated series for younger readers about animals and adventure from much-loved author Jess Butterworth – writer of classic adventure stories in vibrantly described settings.

It’s time for the third Adventure Club trip, and this time Tilly and the Adventure Club are off to the Arctic circle in search of polar bears! There, they journey across the ice on sleighs pulled by huskies, camp in tents, and watch the northern lights, braving sub-zero temperatures.

But on a boat trip, disaster strikes! The team find a narwhal caught in a fishing net. It’s a race against time to free the narwhal. Will they succeed? And will the Adventure Club team spot a single polar bear before they have to leave?

Join the Adventure Club with Tilly to find out!

Picturebook

An award-winning picture book about the Emperor penguin’s parenting.

The Emperor penguin is the only large animal to remain on the Antarctic mainland throughout its bitterly inhospitable winter. Once the female has laid her egg, she heads back to the sea, leaving the male to incubate it. He then spends two months standing on the freezing cold ice with the egg on his feet! This is his story.

Picturebook

In this wonderfully festive picture book, Yuval Zommer imagines the Northern Lights’ fleeting journey from space to Earth and how they weave a special magic for the animals and people living in the frozen lands below.

Picturebook

A little polar bear, Miki, wanders away while his mother is diving for fish. He sees a dot in the snow and rushes towards it. Readers discover that the dot is a little girl. But Miki has never seen a human before and the little girl has never seen a polar bear. They discover more about each other as they play in the snow but then the perils of the polar landscape impel Miki to take the little girl home before undertaking the long journey to find his own mother. Although one is a polar bear and one is a little girl, Miki and Dot share a common experience: they are both separated from their mothers when they meet. Their bond of friendship gives them the strength to support each other during the course of a day that will last with them both forever. This is a moving and poignant story set in a changing and challenging polar landscape, perfect for the Christmas season. It wraps up important themes about empathy, kindness, and courage. The story is both simply told and affecting. The gorgeous snowscapes, full of real atmosphere, are created with printmaking techniques by debut illustrator Fiona Woodcock.

The Best Children’s Books About Frozen Worlds

Brrr! Our recommended children’s books feature stories that will whisk you away to icy landscapes and frozen worlds. Look out for exciting polar expeditions, adventures of ice queens and curious penguins…

If you are looking for stories set in polar regions, we’ve found the best children’s books for this topic. Dive into picturebooks about arctic explorers like Ernest Shackleton or The Great Explorer or heartwarming stories of animals surviving in polar habitats like The Emperor’s Egg or The Rainbow Bear. Our Review Panel has selected top educational books about the science and ecology of frozen worlds, like the large-format stunning non-fiction book Iceberg or Nicola Davies’ Emperor of the Ice.

You’ll also find chapter books featuring exciting adventure stories of friendship and survival in extreme conditions, like The Polar Bear Explorer’s Club or one of our very favourites, The Last Bear.

Our list of books will take your readers on a journey to the Arctic, Antarctic and imaginary frozen worlds too. Whether it’s penguins and polar bears or snow and ice, chart a new expedition into these recommended stories.

Picturebook

The polar bear is bored of his white environment and his hard life. He dreams of soaking himself in all the luminous colours of the rainbow. But when his wish is granted, he realises to his cost that his arctic camouflage no longer works and he needs the advice of others to escape his prism…

A moving tale of hopes and dreams from an award-winning picture book team. The lyrical text is complemented by beautiful watercolours in which the joy and pain of the Rainbow Bear sing out.

Graphic Novel

Young, up-and-coming illustrator William Grill weaves a detailed visual narrative of Shackleton’s journey to Antarctica.Grill’s beautiful use of colored pencils and vibrant hues effortlessly evokes the adventure and excitement that surrounded the expedition. His impeccably researched drawings, rich with detail, fastidiously reproduce the minutiae of the expedition.Children will love examining the diagrams of the peculiar provisions and the individual drawings of each sled dog and packhorse. This book takes the academic and historical information behind the expedition and reinterprets it for a young audience.

Chapter book

Grandfather is off on an expedition to the North Pole to find the Last Polar Bears and with him goes Roo – a dog of character and strong views. The intrepid explorers set sail on the good ship Unsinkable and embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

Eccentric, moving and very funny, their story is told through a series of extraordinary letters.

Chapter book

Reeve and McIntyre bring you another rip-roaring read! The Race to the Top of the World! It comes around once in a lifetime, and the prize? Your heart’s desire. Shen and Sika can’t resist the chance to win, but competition is fierce. The path to victory is littered with snow trolls, sea monsters, and a gang of particularly hungry yetis. But Shen and Sika have something the other contestants don’t have. Actually, they have 66 other things; pugs to be exact. That’s a 264 paw-powered sled! Bursting with stunning illustration throughout, this is a book not to be missed!

Graphic Novel

An amazing tale of heroism and ingenuity, this dramatic picture book tells the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s incredible adventure in the heroic age of Antarctic exploration.

August, 1914: Shackleton sets off from England with a team of explorers to walk across the Antarctic and study the icy depths of this little-known and forbidding continent. Sailing through some of the most perilous seas, the Endurance becomes trapped in the deadly pack ice of the Weddell Sea. When the Endurance is eventually crushed between the vast bulk of two floating icebergs, the men are forced to abandon ship and make the dangerous journey across the crushing sea in lifeboats. They reach relative safety on the uninhabited Elephant Island, but an even greater peril faces Shackleton and five other members of the crew…

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