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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.

Chapter book

A magical wintry story filled with adventure, wonder and edge-of-your-seat excitement, this is the perfect read for fans of Michelle Harrison, Piers Torday and Emma Carroll.

‘Once an adventure digs its claws in, there is not an awful lot you can do about it. Especially when magic is involved . . .’

In the snowy kingdom of Erkenwald , whales glide between icebergs, wolves hunt on the tundra and polar bears roam the glaciers. But the people of this land aren’t so easy to find – because Erkenwald is ruled by an evil Ice Queen and the tribes must stay hidden or risk becoming her prisoners at Winterfang Palace.

Join Eska , a girl who breaks free from a cursed music box, and Flint , a boy whose inventions could change the fate of Erkenwald forever, as they journey to the Never Cliffs and beyond in search of an ancient, almost forgotten, song with the power to force the Ice Queen back.

This is a story about an eagle huntress, an inventor and an organ made of icicles. But it is also a story about belonging, even at the very edges of our world . . .

Picturebook

A lonely old woman adopts, cares for, and raises a polar bear as if he were her own son, until jealous villagers threaten the bear’s life, forcing him to leave his home and his “mother,” in a retelling of a traditional Inuit folktale.

Non-fiction

Fact-hungry readers will discover ship-sinking icebergs, frozen planets, abominable snowmen, icy sports . . . there are enough facts and fun in The Cold Book to give you goosebumps!

This stunning series is packed with cross-curricular information, case studies and dazzling photography and there is also a quiz, further reading section, a glossary and a comprehensive index, making this an ideal reference book for children aged 7+ that is both engaging and thought provoking.

Picturebook

A heart-warming classic full of animal antics by Jill Tomlinson.

Otto is a penguin chick, that much he knows, but other than this he has a lot to learn. Life at the bottom of the world is a curious thing and life can change at a moment’s notice. The next blizzard, the next meal and the threat of being orphaned are all challenges that must be faced. But how will Otto and his friends manage? The only way that penguins can do – by looking after each other.

A perfect story for animal lovers young and old, filled with tenderness and love combined with a subtle humour. Jill Tomlinson’s animal stories have been enjoyed by children who want to snuggle down with a good read for decades. This edition of The Penguin Who Wanted to Find Out is beautifully illustrated by Paul Howard.

Chapter book

It sounded like a respectable and worthy enough death for an explorer – tumbling from an ice bridge to be impaled upon a mammoth tusk – but Stella really, really didn’t want that to happen, just the same.

Join Stella Starflake Pearl and her three fellow explorers as they trek across the snowy Icelands and come face-to-face with frost fairies, snow queens, outlaw hideouts, unicorns, pygmy dinosaurs and carnivorous cabbages . . .

When Stella and three other junior explorers get separated from their expedition can they cross the frozen wilderness and live to tell the tale?

A gorgeously imaginative middle grade fantasy adventure combining the best of Peter Pan, Lemony Snicket, Northern Lights and Alice in Wonderland.

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