Across Frozen Seas

"High adventure, terrifying danger, close friendship, family troubles faced and resolved, and a dash of the mystical or supernatural: this novel for teens has it all." Canada Book Review Annual.

Fed by his grandfather's stories, Dave Young dreams of one day visiting the Canadian Arctic. It's a childish fascination, until the dreams become so vivid that Dave has difficulty telling them from reality. By day he is a small-town boy living in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, struggling with arguing parents and difficulties at school, but by night he is David Young, a cabin boy on HMS Erebus, one of Sir John Franklin's doomed exploration ships. When his dreams intensify, the line between Dave in Humboldt and David on the Erebus gradually disappears. As sailors fall sick, threaten mutiny and become lost in the wilderness, Dave/David and his only friend George must summon all their courage to survive the threats of starvation and exposure in a race against time and the elements. With both boys lost in a blizzard the truest test of their friendship is at hand. Will they be able to find each other in time—and will Dave be able to find his way back to his own time?

"…the facts of the Franklin voyage are made visceral and real for a new generation of armchair historians/explorers."—Susan Perrin—Globe and Mail

"As both lives reel toward the dream's conclusion, the desperation is palpable. The denouement, in both worlds, is an eternity of tension-filled terror that is over in a heartbeat. 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." Prairie Fire

"Time travel with a twist—a fascinating glimpse into the ill-fated Franklin Expedition." Julie Lawson

"…meticulously researched, cleverly-crafted and imaginatively too, absorbing for history lovers of all ages." Marion Woodson

Honour Book, 1998 Sheila A. Egoff Award for Children's Literature and Finalist for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People.