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• For ages 0-5
• Format Paperback | 128 pages
• Dimensions 139.19 x 193.04 x 8.38mm | 154.22g
• Publication date 01 Mar 2007
• Publisher Scholastic US
• Imprint Scholastic
• Publication City/Country New York, United States
• Language English
• Edition Statement Reissue
• ISBN10 0439841208
• ISBN13 9780439841207
• Bestsellers rank 64,622

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• For ages 6-8
• Format Paperback | 40 pages
• Dimensions 211.33 x 254.25 x 4.06mm | 136.08g
• Publication date 01 May 1989
• Publisher Scholastic US
• Publication City/Country New York, United States
• Language English
• Edition Statement Reprint
• Illustrations note colour illustrations
• ISBN10 0590407600
• ISBN13 9780590407601
• Bestsellers rank 5,260

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• Format Paperback | 64 pages
• Dimensions 141 x 178 x 6mm | 91g
• Publication date 26 Dec 2019
• Publisher Scholastic US
• Publication City/Country New York, United States
• Language English
• Edition Statement Reprint
• Illustrations note Illustrations, unspecified
• ISBN10 1338347500
• ISBN13 9781338347500
• Bestsellers rank 115,581

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• Format Paperback | 48 pages
• Dimensions 137 x 173 x 5mm | 68g
• Publication date 05 May 2020
• Publisher Scholastic Inc.
• Language English
• Illustrations note Illustrations, unspecified
• ISBN10 1338540394
• ISBN13 9781338540390
• Bestsellers rank 875,698

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• For ages 9+
• Format Paperback | 435 pages
• Dimensions 132.08 x 190.5 x 30.48mm | 290.3g
• Publication date 01 Oct 2001
• Publisher Scholastic US
• Publication City/Country New York, United States
• Language English
• Edition Statement Reprint
• Illustrations note w. ill. by Mary Grandpre.
• ISBN10 0439136369
• ISBN13 9780439136365
• Bestsellers rank 20,201

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• For ages 12-17
• Format Paperback | 128 pages
• Dimensions 211 x 296 x 9mm | 380g
• Publication date 26 Jun 2014
• Publisher Scholastic
• Publication City/Country London, United Kingdom
• Language English
• ISBN10 1407128973
• ISBN13 9781407128979
• Bestsellers rank 10,480

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• For ages 12-17
• Format Paperback | 128 pages
• Dimensions 212 x 296 x 8mm | 390g
• Publication date 10 Jul 2014
• Publisher Scholastic
• Publication City/Country London, United Kingdom
• Language English
• ISBN10 1407128884
• ISBN13 9781407128887
• Bestsellers rank 71,937

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• Format Paperback | 224 pages
• Publication date 01 Sep 2019
• Publisher Scholastic Australia
• Publication City/Country Gosford, Australia
• ISBN10 1743832583
• ISBN13 9781743832585
• Bestsellers rank 706,332

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• Format Paperback | 480 pages
• Dimensions 141 x 199 x 30mm | 310g
• Publication date 12 Nov 2019
• Publisher Scholastic
• Publication City/Country London, United Kingdom
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• ISBN10 1407194461
• ISBN13 9781407194462
• Bestsellers rank 1,342

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• Format Paperback | 192 pages
• Dimensions 156 x 229 x 11mm | 320g
• Publication date 05 Oct 2017
• Publisher Scholastic US
• Publication City/Country New York, United States
• Language English
• ISBN10 1338148621
• ISBN13 9781338148626
• Bestsellers rank 29,517

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• Format Hardback | 224 pages
• Dimensions 148 x 213 x 21mm | 560g
• Publication date 13 Aug 2019
• Publisher Scholastic US
• Publication City/Country New York, United States
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• ISBN10 1338236598
• ISBN13 9781338236590
• Bestsellers rank 546

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• For ages 0-5
• Format Paperback | 32 pages
• Dimensions 250 x 282 x 4mm | 140g
• Publication date 01 Aug 2017
• Publisher Scholastic
• Imprint Alison Green Books
• Publication City/Country London, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Illustrations note w. numerous col. figs.
• ISBN10 1407170732
• ISBN13 9781407170732
• Bestsellers rank 183

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• Format Paperback | 736 pages
• Dimensions 149 x 201 x 49mm | 530g
• Publication date 02 Apr 2020
• Publisher Scholastic
• Imprint Chicken House Ltd
• Publication City/Country Frome, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Edition Statement 5 ed
• ISBN10 1913322327
• ISBN13 9781913322328
• Bestsellers rank 520

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• Format Paperback | 32 pages
• Dimensions 208.28 x 271.78 x 12.7mm | 158.76g
• Publication date 01 Mar 2019
• Publisher Scholastic US
• Publication City/Country New York, United States
• Language English
• ISBN10 1338387448
• ISBN13 9781338387445
• Bestsellers rank 181,724

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• Format Paperback | 48 pages
• Publication date 01 Dec 2016
• Publisher Scholastic Australia
• Publication City/Country Lindfield, Australia
• ISBN10 1760277428
• ISBN13 9781760277420
• Bestsellers rank 44,675

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• For ages 9-12
• Format Paperback | 128 pages
• Dimensions 129.54 x 187.96 x 10.16mm | 158.76g
• Publication date 01 Feb 2009
• Publisher Scholastic US
• Publication City/Country New York, United States
• Language English
• Edition Statement Reissue
• ISBN10 0545021367
• ISBN13 9780545021364
• Bestsellers rank 89,380

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• Format Paperback | 144 pages
• Publication date 01 May 2017
• Publisher Scholastic Australia
• Publication City/Country Lindfield, Australia
• ISBN10 1760279471
• ISBN13 9781760279479
• Bestsellers rank 7,134

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• For ages 9-12
• Format Paperback | 336 pages
• Dimensions 132.08 x 190.5 x 22.86mm | 226.8g
• Publication date 01 Mar 2017
• Publisher Scholastic US
• Publication City/Country New York, United States
• Language English
• ISBN10 0545685397
• ISBN13 9780545685399
• Bestsellers rank 8,226

Product details

• For ages 12-17
• Format Paperback | 128 pages
• Dimensions 212 x 295 x 9mm | 390g
• Publication date 26 Jun 2014
• Publisher Scholastic
• Publication City/Country London, United Kingdom
• Language English
• ISBN10 1407128965
• ISBN13 9781407128962
• Bestsellers rank 10,573

Graves of Ice: The Lost Franklin Expedition

By John Wilson

Scholastic Canada, CDN$ 14.99
Ages 9-12

Reviewed by Kristina Gehrmann


In Graves of Ice, author John Wilson tells the story of Franklin’s Lost Expedition as part of the I am Canada series, a collection of stories about adventure and exploration geared toward a pre-teen audience. He has explored the same theme previously in the novel North with Franklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames; and in the young-adult book Across Frozen Seas. A biography of Sir John Franklin - Traveller on Undiscovered Seas is also part of his repertoire of many historical books and novels.

 The story is told from the viewpoint of one of the expedition's boys. Eighteen-year-old George Chambers can read and write, works as a clerk, and thanks to his father’s connections manages to get a spot aboard HMS Erebus, one of the ships to sail for the Arctic on Sir John Franklin’s much-awaited expedition. They are to leave England in May of 1845 to find and complete a Northwest-Passage through the Arctic, building on the achievement of former explorers. The general consensus is that there is merely a small part of the Passage yet to be discovered, that it is theirs for the taking, and that with the aid of modern technology it will now be claimed once and for all.

But a year or so before, our protagonist meets another boy: Davy, a half-orphan, who earns a modest living muck-raking in the mud. Davy invites George on a “treasure hunt” in the churchyard at night, and George, eager for adventure, goes along. It is in the following scene that the stark contrast between the two boys’ backgrounds and upbringing becomes most apparent. The reader notices that Davy intends to steal a corpse from the grave; but to George in all his stunning naïveté this doesn’t occur – indeed, he asks upon digging up the coffin, surprised, “The treasure’s in the coffin?”

Only then does he realize what they’re about to do. Horrified, he wants to get away, but Davy’s companion, a grave robber named Jim, gets ready to kill George, but then Davy steps in and stabs Jim to death, saving George’s life. The latter is now even more shocked to know what his new acquaintance is capable of, and wants nothing more to do with him and his life of crime.

In the next year, George has almost forgotten this scary episode when, to his horror, he finds the same grave-robbing street urchin serving alongside him as a cabin boy on HMS Erebus. Although they work on the same tasks, try to put their awkward start behind them and get along with each other, the differences in their personalities create conflict throughout the book. Davy is a tough kid who grew up in a harsh dog-eat-dog world, not always hiding his deep-seated suspicion of the aloof officers (“toffs”), while George, the well-mannered, slightly naïve young gentleman gets along well with Commander Fitzjames whom he’s been assigned to, shares the officers’ optimism about the expedition’s goals, and trusts them to make the right decisions for the good of all.

The journey starts off well enough. George and Davy have plenty of work to do, attending to the officers, assisting the cook, and learning to climb the rigging. They also make friends with fellow sailors. One of these, a Royal Marine named William Braine, will already be familiar to some readers as one of the expedition’s famous ice mummies exhumed in 1986.

As this book is intended for younger readers, it's not as long and descriptive as one might expect from a novel. Certain events are merely mentioned or implied and not shown, such as incidents of cannibalism that have occurred among Franklin’s men in the Arctic. A Franklin enthusiast might also feel that the officers’ characters are too roughly outlined and have not been done justice, but Crozier and Co. are not the focus of this book. The protagonists’ characterization is splendid. The often-overlooked ships’ boys David and George become more than mere names on the muster rolls, and one finds it easy to believe that this is how their real namesakes might have been.

And although the story is very compact the author has included many historically relevant and well-researched details: the provisioning and equipment of Her Majesty’s ships Erebus and Terror, scientific work and everyday routine aboard; and – most curiously – Commander Fitzjames’ not-so-glamorous background, a mystery that was uncovered only very recently and may, so I hope, inspire new characterizations of him in future works of fiction.

Once Erebus and Terror are beset in ancient ice off King William Island in September of 1846, the mortality rate on Franklin’s expedition rises. And contrary to the expectation, the ice seems to have no intention of releasing them even in the following summer. In April 1848, a group of 105 survivors, weakened by cold and sickness, know that they have no choice but to abandon the ships at least for a season’s hunting, and even then their prospects are grim: They are too numerous to shoot enough game to keep the dreaded scurvy at bay.

So much for the relatively few facts that are known. To these, the author adds several more fictional puzzle parts to show how the situation could have unfolded. For example, a group of Inuit visit the beset ships and their crews – and George tries to convince Davy that they actually have a lot to learn from these “savages”, to which Davy replies, “I shall hold with good old English ways”, illustrating the expedition leaders’ and organizers’ belief that whatever worked in the past surely will be successful today also. The discrepancy between the seemingly clear Northwest-Passage on a map and the reality of confusing, dangerous, unpredictable Arctic ice mazes was simply not yet understood.

Eventually George witnesses a mutiny, led by none other than his presumed friend Davy, and for a moment he is torn between loyalty to him and to his captain, Fitzjames. The uprising fortunately does not result in bloodshed but it leaves George in doubt: has he chosen the right side? Who will end up being right about which way to turn for rescue? This question may now prove critical.

Graves of Ice is a great introduction to the fascinating mystery of the Franklin Expedition for both young and adult readers. In fictional works on this subject, every author and novel offers a different view of how the expedition could have met its fate. The possibilities are many, and this book is a realistic scenario in which the puzzle parts seem to fit together well.