by Katherine Kirkpatrick
On the treeless shores of Itta, Greenland, as far north as humans can settle, sixteen-year-old Inuit Billy Bah spots a ship far out among the icebergs on the bay - a sight both welcome and feared. Explorers have already left their indelible mark on her land and its people, and a ship full of white men can mean trouble.
The ship carries provisions for Robert E. Peary, who is making an expedition to the North Pole. As a child, Billy Bah spent a year in America with Peary's family. When her parents went to America years later, they died in a tragic scandal. Now, Peary's wife, daughter, and crew are in Itta to bring him supplies. Winter comes on fast, and when the ship gets caught in the ice, Billy Bah sets out to find Peary. The journey will imperil her life, and that of the man she loves.
By turns lyrical and gripping, Between Two Worlds is an impassioned coming-of-age novel set in a land of breathtaking beauty and danger, where nature and love are powerful and unpredictable forces.
"Starred Review. Rich details about building igloos; hunting, preparing, and eating animals; and sewing clothing from their skins and furs...create a total immersion in Inuit life. While the sexuality isn't explicit, the story's mature themes recommend it to older readers." - Publishers Weekly
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Katherine Kirkpatrick is the author of seven fiction and nonfiction books, including The Snow Baby, a James Madison Book Award Honor Book and a Booklist Editors' Choice and Top Ten Biography for Youth; and Mysterious Bones, a Golden Kite Honor Book for Nonfiction, a NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, a Washington State Book Award Finalist, and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Between Two Worlds is her eighth title. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Seattle, Washington.
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