A Hole in the Head

by Nicholas Fisk

The dog gasped, mouthed, swung its head. It gaped and showed sharp white teeth. Then, as if it were being sick, it brought up words. The dog spoke . . .Madi and her brother Jonjo live on the OzBase, a research center near the North Pole. Their mother is one of an international team of scientists investigating a hole in the ozone layer over the Arctic. Others, however, are involved in less honourable experiments - as the children soon discover . . .

Hardcover

First published September 24, 1992

About the author

(1923–2016), British author of more than forty books and television scripts and a master of science fiction for children. Fisk, whose real name is David Higginbottom, grew up during the Second World War and served in the Royal Air Force. His autobiography, Pig Ignorant (1992), covers the years 1939–1941 and details his life in Soho, a bohemian section of London, where he played jazz in the evenings until he was called to enlist. After the war Fisk worked as a musician, journalist, and publisher. He started writing in the 1960s, and his popularity was at its height in the 1970s and 1980s. His most impressive work, A Rag, a Bone, and a Hank of Hair (1982), is a thrilling futuristic novel set at the end of the 22ndcentury. The government is cloning new people and has manufactured a 1940s wartime family whose members are unaware that nothing they know is real. This moving story is a dark representation of the threat posed by technological advancement but is optimistic in its message about the triumph of the human spirit. Fisk's most enduring books include Grinny (1973), which features a technologized extraterrestrial threat in the form of a great- aunt who glows at night, and Trillions (1971), an eerie story about mysterious hard shiny objects that contain an alien intelligence. Monster Maker (1979) was made into a film.

Reviews

[Ninja]

Teenage kids of scientists get mixed up in mystery and mayhem in a research station around the Arctic. It's an early 90s book, so throws in some early cli-fi in the form of the ozone hole, with explanations for those that it's all new to.
I thought it had a shaky start with a talking dog left to die and rescued by the children, but the characters and adventure and story was quite engaging. Maybe not up there with Grinny and Trillions, but quite worthwhile.