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Jul 26, 2011

Kwesi 章英狮 rated it:

Do you have any idea how to live in a freezing dessert called South Pole? Or have you tried reading thousands of books regarding South Pole and the failed expedition of Captain Oates? What if you fall in love to an imaginary character just by watching an old film about South Pole? This book is sympathetically all you need to live in the South. No need for maps or self-help books and most of the entire journey is effortless.

I never wished to go to the South and I don’t have any idea h More...

0 comments like (17 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2008

R.j. rated it:

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1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2008

Abby rated it:

So many people have loved this book... I think it's just not my thing. After the death of her father, 14-year-old Symone, excruciatingly shy hearing-impaired geek with an imaginary friend, is whisked away on a surprise trip to Antarctica by her Uncle Victor. From the start you can sense that something's not right here. Victor's acting fishy, lying to Sym about their destination, stealing her mother's passport so she can't come with them... and things just get bleaker and bleaker as the journey g More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Mar 07, 2009

McNeil rated it:

A gorgeous book. Shocking when someone pure and innocent--not just because she is young--many of her peers are far more worldly-wise than she--is manipulated by those she trusts--she has no idea what is real and what is not. Her whole existence, the whole story she's been told is just based on other people's manipulation of the facts. I'm still not certain whether those who manipulated the facts were conscious that they were doing so. It is yet another great example of the ills of fanaticism, no More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2008

Mahrya rated it:

McCaughrean, Geraldine. The White Darkness, HarperTempest, 373 pages. Fictional chapter book, mystery.

Description: Symone is obsessed with Antarctica, particularly with early 20th century Antarctic explorers. In fact, she can apparently communicate with the spirit of a departed explorer named Titus. When her uncle takes her to Antarctica to find the mythical Symmes Hole, she must act rationally under mysterious circumstances.

Review: The White Darkness is filled with twist More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 23, 2008

JB rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2011

Lucy rated it:

Symone is a bit of an odd duck. For one thing, she’s in love with Captain Titus Oates, which is only remarkable in that Titus died ninety years ago. For another, she is obsessed with all things Antarctica. So when her Uncle Victor surprises her with a dream trip to Antarctica, she is thrilled. But before long, Symone will be thrust into a nightmarish struggle for survival that will force her to reconsider everything she thought she knew—about Antarctica, about her past, and about herself.
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1 comment like

Apr 21, 2008

Krista rated it:

Fourteen year-old Sym seems to be trapped in her own mind, her deafness, shyness, and social naiveté make her an outcast at school. Her father's death has made her mother distant and invited her eclectic uncle into bring the family out of a financial burden. However, when her uncle, who feeds her love for all things about Antarctica, encourages the family to take a trip, Sym gets whisked away from her mother and thrown into a dangerous adventure in the icy continent with her uncle. His drive for More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 10, 2008

Becky rated it:

"What! Whoa!" was the chorus running through my head as I read this highly unusual story, this year's Printz Award winner. Although it took a while to get going, it quickly morphed into a layered mystery, narrated by 14-year-old British girl Sym, who accompanies her Uncle Victor (and her imaginary friend, the Artic explorer "Titus" Oates) on a trip to Paris which turns into a trip to Antarctica (!!) and a survival story unlike any other. Pair with "Life As We Knew It" More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2010

Jackie rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 31, 2008

Brandy rated it:

2008 Printz Award winner!

I'm going to echo several other reviews here: this is beautifully written, atmospheric, and engrossing, and yet it just didn't do it for me.

When Symone's generous uncle offers to whisk her and her mom away to Paris, Sym jumps at the chance--and when her mom's passport goes missing at the last moment, Sym looks forward to exploring Paris with Uncle Victor. But after one night, he reveals that the trip is bigger than Paris. They're going south. V More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 25, 2008

Alex rated it:

In this brilliantly crafted story of madness and despair comes the story of teenage Sym who is whisked away from her normal teenage anxieties to face the bleak desolation of Antarctica and her uncle's obsession. Sym is a normal British teen, unpopular boys and the butt of many jokes with her friends. Her father has died rather tragically, but Sym finds solace by insulating herself in a fictional world where her principal friend is an incarnation of Captain Lawerence Oates, who lead an ill-fated More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 29, 2007

Jan rated it:

White Darkness has the most amazing premise. Fourteen year old Sym travels with her uncle to the Antarctic on what should be the trip of a lifetime. It is indeed a trip that will never be forgotten. Her uncle is convinced that there is a hole in the Antarctic that leads to an inner world, proving the earth is a hollow shell. After they arrive at the base, her uncle sabotages the return plane and drugs everyone at the base so he can steal a snow machine and head towards the coordinates where More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2008

Tiny rated it:

When I think about this book, all I want to do is sigh. Sigh because it was a frustrating read, sigh because of the main character's situation throughout most of the book, and sigh that it won the Printz.

I read it, and I read it fast. I stayed up all night to finish this mother. I was *so* worried about this girl's retarded fate that I couldn't sleep! I needed to find out what happened! So in that sense, yes, it was excellent. In the sense that the story traps you like you've go More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 11, 2008

Stephanie rated it:

I have a friend who says she can tell if she’ll love a movie with the first ten minutes. And I can often say the same for a book; I can tell I love it within the first twenty pages or so. But The White Darkness took me until page 73 to get really hooked. And then I couldn’t put it down. It’s about a teenage girl, Symone, who gets her dream vacation: a trip to Antarctica. She is obsessed with Antarctica and one of its brave explorers, Captain Oates from Scott’s doomed expedition to the South Pole More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 31, 2009

Tiff rated it:

Although I think perhaps this book was little too long, I can see why it won the Printz award last year. There were portions of this book where the writing was just incredible...so descriptive and powerful...it reminded me of some passages written by Gary D. Schmidt. The story was intense, mysterious, and original.

I'd be interested to see how high school students would react to this book, because it did take me quite a long time to finish. I think it may be for more mature readers, More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 01, 2008

Joshua rated it:

The current weather here certainly gives you some insight of what being stranded on Antarctica might feel like.

For Polar Survival stories, I liked Shackleton's Stowaway by McKernan way better--but they're not even really readalikes, unless you're an Antarctica nut. White Darkness actually reminded me more of Cole's The Goats in a lot of ways (even though that one has nothing to do with Antarctica): big on character, teen social outcasts, surviving on wits, adults are clueless or ope More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 07, 2008

Landismom rated it:

Really excellent YA novel about a girl who is obsessed with Antarctica, and the uncle who kidnaps her and takes her there.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 07, 2008

Anna rated it:

This was certainly one of the more interesting books I've read recently. The story was so bizarre and the characters so unusual that it made me want to keep reading to see how it would all end. The writing style, too, was unsual and engaging. But there was also something abou this book that didn't sit quite right with me. I guess I just had a hard time really believing the story; once you throw so many odd elements together, it becomes difficult to make them all work in a way that actually s More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 27, 2009

Julia rated it:

This was a very good book from a literary standpoint. It is however, not a "fun" read. It is a Printz award winner for the best book of the year for young adults, and deservedly so.

It is a tale of a teen from England who gets taken on a surprise trip to Antartica with her uncle. Symone's (Sym) story quickly turns into a survival tale, as she deals with an increasingly manic uncle.

What helps Sym get through is her imaginary relationship with a long dead ar More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2009

Melissa added it

4Q 4P J
The author draws upon historical facts and figures in regards to exploration of the Antarctic throughout the book. The main character, Symone or “Sym”, grows-up emersing herself in information about Arctic exploration, and is most fascinated by Captain Scott’s expedition to the South Pole in 1910. She specifically idolizes and falls in love with Titus Oates who was a member of the doomed expedition, and converses with him in her mind. Sym doesn’t exactly fit in with her peers, an More...

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Feb 02, 2009

Beth rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jan 19, 2009

Linda rated it:

Symone is fourteen years old, hearing impaired and friendless. Sym is obsessed with Antarctica and even shares a “friendship” with the long, dead Titus Oates who was part of Robert Scott’s doomed Antarctica expedition in 1912. When, family friend, “Uncle” Victor takes her on a polar expedition to Antarctica she is thrilled and ignores all the signs that something is not quite right about the journey until it is too late. Victor is insane; obsessed with finding the entrance to Symmes Hole a mythi More...

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Dec 01, 2011

Sarah rated it:

My sister forewarned me that this would be a stupid book. She read it for her own Adolescent Lit class, and it failed to impress. She summed it up as a disabled girl fantasizing about a long-dead explorer going to live her dream and see Antarctica for herself. And I'm inclined to think anyone who doesn't read past the first few chapters will agree with her.

I can't believe it's the same novel. While I don't love it so much as to put it on my own bookshelf at home, I was still impressed More...

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Dec 01, 2011

Jeffrey rated it:

This young adult novel is about Sym, a fourteen-year-old girl, and her “uncle” Victor, a family friend and business partner of Sym’s now deceased father, as they go on an adventure to Antarctica. During this adventure, you begin to suspect (along with Sym) the crazy nature of the trip and Victor’s true intentions as they struggle for survival. As event unfolds you slowly learn more about each character, and how Sym eventually becomes her own person and grows out of her ignorant, obsessive state More...

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Dec 01, 2011

Ofa rated it:

Ok - this book was good. For me, it was kind of long - and a bit hard to get into. The story centers on a girl who is still suffereing from the death of her father and the effects that his disease had on his and her relationship. She seems so impressionable. This trait is very important as she is convinced that her uncle is a genius and she goes along with his crazy scemes for the first part of the book. From select diction and dialogue ques, readers can tell that this young girl was More...

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Dec 01, 2011

Claire rated it:

I thought that this book was really cool! I bought it used and so it didn't have a book jacket, thus leaving me kind of in the dark about what it was about when I picked it up. I will admit that since we usually only have one book due per week for class, I had kind of forgotten about this book until last night at like 9. Cursing myself, and NOT looking forward to spending the wee hours of my night reading when I had a million other things to do, I grabbed it and got started. Needless to say I th More...

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Nov 19, 2011

Cindy rated it:

I was not excited to read a novel about Antarctica since I had just recently read a non-fiction book on the subject. It was a slow beginning and took awhile to get into. Symone is a fourteen year old girl who is kidnapped by her Uncle Victor and whisked off to Antarctica on his insane scheme to find the hole to the center of the earth. It's a life and death journey for Symone to find truth and discover what she is capable of being. She starts out as a shy, hearing-impaired, nerdy type of young w More...

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Sep 20, 2011

Jenalyn rated it:

NOTE: This is the review I wrote on Amazon.com as "Fire Fairy"

As a Young Adult novel about a fourteen year-old girl with no friends other than her imagination, this story definitely deserves the award it recieved. Sym, a fourteen year-old girl, is obsessed with the Antarctic regions and the story of Captain "Titus" Oates, an Antarctic explorer from the 1800s. Because Sym is socially awkward, Titus has become her constant companion, filling her imagination as he acc More...

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Apr 13, 2011

akibird rated it:

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean (2006)
Adventure, 369 pages
Fourteen year-old Symone is fine, despite the fact that her father has just died, she has few friends, and her disability has made her somewhat socially awkward. Sym gets through life with the help of “Titus” Oates, once a great traveler of Sym’s passion, Antarctica. Dead for over 100 years, Titus is now a voice in Sym’s head, her own creation, representing everything she wants in a man and best friend. Besides More...

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