The White Darkness

The White Darkness, by Geraldine McCaughrean, is the winner of the 2008 Michael L. Printz Award. This is the story of a teenage girl named Symone who has a fascination with the Polar Regions, especially Antarctica. Sym, as she is known, is so fascinated with everything about Antarctica that she has conversations in her head with the famous Antarctic explorer Lawrence “Titus” Oates. These imaginary conversations will prove helpful to her later on. Her “Uncle” Victor tells her mother that the three of them should take a weekend trip to Paris, but it turns into a trip for two to Antarctica. He takes Sym on what she believes is a dream vacation that quickly turns into a nightmare. Once they arrive, people start getting sick, a plane crashes, and Victor’s true and evil plans become clear. He plans to find Symme’s Southern Hole, and force Sym into it to live with the people he believes live in those Inner Worlds. It turns out that “Uncle” Victor is not the loving friend of the family that she thought he was, and that he had been preparing for this trip for some time. He caused her father’s death and her deafness. The White Darkness in Antarctica makes it difficult to see clearly, kind of like ignorance. By the end, Sym is no longer ignorant about the truth of her situation. She struggles to survive in the icy Antarctic wilderness. Her “Uncle” is not so lucky. She learns to trust herself but not be quite so trusting of others. Although there was a little bit of mature language, this would be a great survival story to recommend to middle school and higher students. I especially appreciate that the heroine is a girl, since there are already so many great survival stories about boys.