Like Island of the Blue Dolphins, but with a boy, a bear, and an "island" of ice. ( )

Based on a true incident, this is a fine adventure story describing survival against all odds, the growth of a young man into adulthood, and the friendship of a tame polar bear. In 1757, Allan Gordon was a young sailor on the whaleship the Anne Forbes. When it struck an iceberg in the Arctic and overturned, Allan was the only survivor. He faced freezing temperatures, injuries, starvation and overwhelming loneliness. Allan almost lost his will to continue struggling to live. But then he adopted an orphaned polar bear cub (having killed its mother for meat) and caring for it gave him a feeling of purpose and companionship. Allan shouldered aside his fears and found ways to survive on his floating iceberg prison. Seven years after disappearance of the Anne Forbes, Allan Gordon finally returned to Aberdeen. Hardly anyone believed his story. Many of the details Allan gave of his experience contradicted popular beliefs of the time about the Arctic. Yet as the author points out in his final chapter, when more was learned about those regions, a lot of the things Allan described were later proven to be quite possibly true.


from The Dog Ear Diary ( )

Lexile: 1060
Reading Recovery: 32
DRA: 44
Fountas Pinnel Guided Reading: Z