Shackletons Stowaway

On October 26, 1914, Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance set sail from Buenos Aires in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize in exploration: the crossing of the Antarctic continent. The crew stood on deck to watch the city fade away. All but one. Eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow hid below in a locker. But the thrill of stowing away with the legendary explorer would soon turn to fear. Within months, the Endurance, trapped and crushed by ice, sank. And even Perce, the youngest member of the stranded crew, knew there was no hope of rescue. If the men were to survive in the most hostile place on earth, they would have to do it on their own. Victoria McKernan deftly weaves the hard-to-fathom facts of this famous voyage into an epic, edge-of-your-seat survival novel.

On October 26, 1914, Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance set sail from Buenos Aires in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize in exploration: the crossing of the Antarctic continent. The crew stood on deck to watch the city fade away. All but one. Eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow hid below in a locker. But the thrill of stowing away with the legendary explorer would soon turn to fear. Within months, the Endurance, trapped and crushed by ice, sank. And even Perce, the youngest member of the stranded crew, knew there was no hope of rescue. If the men were to survive in the most hostile place on earth, they would have to do it on their own. Victoria McKernan deftly weaves the hard-to-fathom facts of this famous voyage into an epic, edge-of-your-seat survival novel.

Shackleton's journey is one of the greatest adventure tales ever told. In this story, we learn of their incredible survival through the eyes of Perce - a young stowaway on the Endurance. This story is part of Reading Champion, a series carefully linked to book bands to encourage independent reading skills, developed with Dr Sue Bodman and Glen Franklin of UCL Institute of Education (IOE). This first colour chapter book is a perfectly levelled, accessible text for Key stage 2 readers aged 10-11. Reading Champion offers independent reading books for children to practise and reinforce their developing reading skills. Fantastic, original stories are accompanied by engaging artwork and activities to provoke deeper response and encourage writing. Each book has been carefully graded so that it can be matched to a child's reading ability, encouraging reading for pleasure. The Key Stage 2 Reading Champion Books are suggested for use as follows: Independent Reading 11: start of Year 3 or age 7+ Independent Reading 12: end of Year 3 or age 7+ Independent Reading 13: start of Year 4 or age 8+ Independent Reading 14: end of Year 4 or age 8+ Independent Reading 15: start of Year 5 or age 9+ Independent Reading 16: end of Year 5 or age 9+ Independent Reading 17: start of Year 6 or age 10+ Independent Reading 18: end of Year 6 or age 10+

This is the classic account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914-1916 Antarctic expedition. Written by the captain of the Endurance, the ship used by Shackleton on this ill-fated journey, it is a remarkable tale of courage and bravery in the face of extreme odds and a vivid portrait of one of the world's greatest explorers. "A breathtaking story of courage under the most appalling conditions." - Edmund Hillary

Adrift on the Antarctic pack ice with no means of escape and no hope of rescue, Ernest Shackleton and his men are surely doomed. In August 1914, Ernest Shackleton and his men set sail for Antarctica, where they plan to cross the last uncharted continent on foot. In January 1915, his ship, the Endurance, becomes locked in pack ice. Later, it sinks without a trace. To survive, Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men must undertake a trial even more extreme than their planned crossing of the frozen continent. Their aim is to make it home against tremendous odds, with only lifeboats to cross the heavy seas of the South Atlantic - and the life-saving power of Shackleton's extraordinary leadership skills. 'An incredible true story brought to life in a highly readable style.'- Michael Smith, author of Shackleton: By Endurance We Conquer Praise for AMUNDSEN'S WAY & INTO THE WHITE 'Joanna Grochowicz's narrative non-fiction brings to life characters and events without skimping on historical fact. While the extensive research underpinning the book is apparent, it is the narrative voice that carries us forward.' - New Zealand Review of Books 'Amundsen's Way is a thoroughly enjoyable and readable story about some very brave people coping with horrific challenges. It is ideal for making young readers aware of the pleasures of long-form non-fiction books.' - Magpies 'For thrill-seeking middle school students who love nonfiction adventure stories...the adventures of Scott and his crew don't disappoint.' - School Library Journal

A “compelling adventure novel” of a young stowaway on the 1914 Antarctic expedition that “draws the reader deep into Shackleton’s frigid world . . . gripping” (Kirkus Reviews). With Ernest Shackleton on his ship Endurance are twenty-eight crew members, sixty-nine sled dogs, a gramophone, a bicycle—and Merce Blackboro, a seventeen-year-old stowaway hidden amidst oilskins and sea boots. Their journey into the ice is by way of the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. But the Antarctic summer is short, and their passage remains resolutely closed to them. In the Weddell Sea the Endurance is trapped for months in pack ice and finds itself delivered up to an uncertain fate. Richly imagined and gripping right up the very last page, The Ice-Cold Heaven traces Shackleton’s legendary and heroic adventure through the ice and explores the relationships between these men who were lost to the world for 635 days. “A compulsively readable adventure yarn, all the more so for being based on real events.” —Kirkus Reviews “A realistic picture of one of history's most famous explorations . . . YA readers, adventure lovers, history buffs, and fans of polar fiction (e.g., Tanis Rideout's Above All Things; Dan Simmons’s The Terror) will enjoy.” —Library Journal “Succeeds in placing the reader firmly alongside the stricken explorers.” —Publishers Weekly “Even those not normally drawn to adventure novels will find the depth of characterization in Bonné’s thrilling novel absorbing.” —Historical Novels Review

Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance has been crushed by the ice! Shackleton wanted to be the first to walk across the Antarctic continent. Now he and his 27 men are stranded on the ice floes in the middle of the frozen ocean. Courageously they begin planning their escape. No one can rescue them. They will have to save themselves.

"We had seen God in His splendours, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man." In 1914, Ernest Shackleton set out on an 1,800-mile trek across Antarctica. During the three-year expedition, his team overcame shipwreck, treacherous glaciers, and a bitterly hostile climate. They faced the elements on this icy continent with extraordinary determination, resourcefulness, and courage. This account by one of Britain's greatest explorers is at once thrilling, harrowing, and inspiring.

When almost-16-year-old Aiden Lynch and his little sister, Maddy, first meet trailrider Jefferson J. Jackson, they're eating clay and hunting grasshoppers on the remains of their family's drought-ravaged Kansas farm. In short, the two orphans are starving to death, so when this man Jackson offers an escape—a 2000-mile journey across the roughest country in the world—Aiden knows it's their only choice. They say there are a hundred ways to die on the Oregon Trail, and the long wagon journey is broken only by catastrophe: wolf attacks, tornadoes, rattlesnakes, deadly river crossings, Indians, and the looming threat of smallpox, "the devil's paint." But with the sky a cornflower blue and the air sweet with new prairie grass, Aiden and Maddy and a hundred fellow travelers move forward with a growing hope, and the promise of a new life in the Washington Territory. Adventure-filled and historically accurate, Victoria McKernan captures both the peril and stunning beauty of the frontier West in an epic American story at once sweeping and intimate, heartbreaking and hopeful.