• Age: 11 to 18
• Grade: 6 to 12

See below for English description.

George Chambers se porte volontaire pour participer à l'expédition de sir John Franklin, en quête du légendaire passage du Nord-Ouest. Mais les deux vaisseaux, l'Erebus et le Terror, se retrouvent prisonniers des glaces. L'enthousiasme de l'équipage fait alors place à une lutte éperdue contre la faim et le froid. George et un officier sont les derniers survivants.

A dramatic Arctic adventure set during Sir John Franklin's doomed search for the Northwest Passage.

George Chambers is a fourteen-year-old aboard HMS Erebus, one of two ships under the command of Sir John Franklin on his quest to discover the Northwest Passage. But when the Erebus and Terror are trapped in crushing ice, 129 men of the crew die from cold, scurvy and starvation.

George recalls the events that led him to Canada's desolate North, and the expedition's failure - including gravediggers, a close call with a polar bear, standing up against sailors threatening mutiny, and his own impending death.

Original title: Graves of Ice: The Lost Franklin Expedition

John 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 acolades including a shortlisting for the Governor General’s Award.

John Wilson's profile page

Dans les médias

À l'assaut de la citadelle

« L'écriture juste, fluide, et le rythme constant des aventures vécues ont pour effet de tenir le lecteur en haleine. Un très bon roman historique. »

~ Lurelu

Les tombes de glace

« Le dernier tome de la série Au Canada... est un classique de John Wilson : réaliste, recherché et bien écrit.»

~ Resources Links

Reviews

Shot at Dawn (Fusillé à l'aube)

" The author nails the essence of a tempestuous period. The writing is immaculate in the way it describes the monstrosities that soldiers must experience."

~ The National Post

I Am Canada: Graves of Ice by John Wilson (Les tombes de glace)

" This latest in the I Am Canada Series is classic John Wilson: realistic, well-researched, and well-written."

~ Resources Links, 2014