Across Frozen Seas
by John Wilson
- Short-listed, Sheila A. Egoff Award for Children’s Literature
- Short-listed, Geoffrey Bilson Award
In his third young adult title, John Wilson takes on the rich territory of the 1845 Franklin expedition. Cabin boy David Young travels aboard the ill-fated vessel the HMS Erebus from London, England, en route to Canada's frozen and uncharted north, and his adventures comes to a modern-day Dave Young in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, in a series of dreams.
close this panelJohn Wilson was born in 1951 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He did his early growing up on the Island of Skye and in Paisley, near Glasgow. From 1969 to 1974, he attended the University of St. Andrews where he took an Honours B.Sc.. in Geology and never played golf once. He took a position with the Geological Survey of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). In his two years there, he mapped rocks, dodged land mines and watched the country sink ever deeper into civil war. Shortly before he was due to be called into the army, John retreated back to Britain on his way to the safety of Canada. He settled on Calgary where geology was booming and the only danger was freezing to death in January. In 1979, he moved to Edmonton to take up a post with the Alberta Geological Survey. In 1988 he sold a feature article to the Globe and Mail. This fueled a smouldering mid-life crisis and he took up freelance writing full-time. With some success, John mined the experiences of his travels for articles, journalism and photo essays. He even began to express himself poetically and, with a young family, began writing children's stories. He moved to Nanaimo and then Lantzville on Vancouver Island. John has been widely published by a number of Canadian presses, with his accolades including a shortlisting for the Governor General’s Award.
close this panel"John Wilson's use of dream travel to explore and examine creatively The Franklin Expedition keeps the reader turning the pages right to the last."
"the facts of the Franklin voyage are made visceral and real for a new generation of armchairhistorians/explorers."
"Teens interested in the mysterious fate of the Franklin crew will find much satisfaction in this novel."
