Publication Date: 10th October 2024
Genre: Middle Grade Adventure
4.2 Stars
One Liner: A freezing adventure!
Eleven-year-old Maisie lives with her father who writes boring books like How to Wrestle a Crocodile or How to Diffuse a Bomb. In real life, he is a boring person who makes triangle origami and does basic puzzles. However, with no one to watch Maisie, her father has to take her with him to Antarctica. Soon, Maisie realizes there is a lot she doesn’t know about her father. He has many skills and may be hiding a secret too!
The story comes in Maisie’s first-person POV.
My Thoughts:
Well, how can I resist a book about a young girl and her dad having an adventure in Antarctica?
Maisie is a sassy and imaginative narrator, which will work great for the target audience. She is a tween who is bad at school, doesn’t pay attention to most things, and thinks too fast for adults to catch up with.
The story is fast-paced and combines adventure, danger, intrigue, and superpower. The heady combination is perfect for kids, especially since Maisie messes up a lot and often needs to be rescued by adults. Young readers can see how easy it is to get into trouble. The adults are also capable, which is another plus.
The freezing landscape of Antarctica comes alive on the pages without any extensive detail. We see what the narrator sees, which are loads of ice and other strange stuff.
Despite the antics and danger, the story manages to deal with topics like the loss of a parent, the loss of a life partner (for the father), being a loner, the hardships of being a single parent, etc. These aspects shape the character arcs, making them integral to the central plot.
The blurb calls this the first in the series, and I can see why. Though it works as a standalone, we have only scratched the surface and are yet to delve fully into the main characters’ lives. Naturally, there have to be more adventures. I hope Miss Kumari will feature actively in the coming books.
The chapter titles are quirky and hint at what’s to come though there aren’t any major reveals. They are all titled ‘How to…’ a nod to the books the dad writes. Since this book is being written by Maisie, it is fitting that she follows her father’s footsteps.
I would have loved it if the book had some illustrations – Maisie’s flaming red hair, the dad, the caterpillar, etc. Even a sample of handwriting, for that matter, would enhance the appeal.
To summarize, Maisie vs Antarctica is a terrific start to a new series and I hope we get to see more adventures of Maisie and her father. I enjoyed this fast-paced narrative bubbling with an eleven-year-old’s overactive imagination.
Thank you, NetGalley and Nosy Crow, for eARC.
#NetGalley #MaisieVsAntarctica
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