Denise W. McGrain (Children's Literature)
Peter Solemn’s father is a glaciologist, someone who studies glaciers, and when he was not doing that, his father taught in a university in New York, where Peter and his parents lived. Everyone always said that he was like his mom, he had light skin like her, nearly paper white, with freckles all over, and wavy hair, but his was blond like his father’s, not dark like his mother’s. When he started having headaches shortly after his twelfth birthday, he just figured this was the way things were, because his mom had headaches that would last for several days at least twice a year. One day his father came home from work early to tell Peter and his mother that they would be going to Greenland with him on one of his adventures. Peter was excited, but did not realize this one adventure would affect him for the rest of his life. On this trip to Greenland he meets a new friend and learns a secret that has been kept hidden from the rest of the world for centuries. This science fiction is one of the best I have read in a long while. As the story is told, step-by-step, it kept me in suspense wondering what or who would meet me around the next corner. 2007, Wendy lamb Books/Random House, $15.99. Ages 14 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2007 (Vol. 75, No. 11))
With the impending threat of global warning as an ominous backdrop, teens from very different worlds find they have much in common. Twelve-year-old Peter and his parents leave Manhattan on a scientific expedition to Greenland where Peter's father and his assistant will study the effects of global warming. After settling into the frozen world, Peter senses his parents share a secret, while he experiences migraines with strange visual effects. Meanwhile, below Greenland's surface, 14-year-old Thea lives in Gracehope, an amazing underground colony settled generations before by a persecuted group of people from England. Descended from Gracehope's original founder, Thea is convinced the future of her people lies above the ground. While Peter's visions draw him toward Gracehope, Thea's convictions draw her toward the light. As Peter struggles to figure out his parents' secret, Thea grapples with secrets in her own family. Alternating between Peter and Thea's stories, this compelling contemporary ice-age mystery introduces two engaging characters whose personal courage is tested as they discover one another's worlds as well as the truth about themselves. Thoroughly enjoyable arctic adventure. 2007, Wendy Lamb/Random, 336p, $15.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 9 to 12. © 2007 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

April Spisak (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, September 2007 (Vol. 61, No. 1))
Chapters alternating points of view chronicle the intertwined lives of two teens: twelve-year-old Peter, who is accompanying his scientist parents on a trip to Greenland, and fourteen-year-old Thea, a member of Gracehope, a secret society built under the ice, who has long been plotting to see the world above. The two first meet when they join forces to save Thea’s best friend, who loyally accompanied her on her forbidden quest to the surface and who is now trapped in the ice. After saving him, the pair moves on to questions, revelations, and confrontations, and both realize that their lives will be irrevocably different from having met. The elegant descriptions of the unforgiving world of Greenland are impressive, as ice, snow, and wrenching winds are somehow made so appealing as to entice the reader to want to visit. However, the convoluted and somewhat unconvincing mythology of Gracehope is confusing to the point of obfuscation, and the familial connection between Peter and Thea (they turn out to be cousins) seems forced rather than fated. In addition, although the later chapters are effectively terse and dramatic, the first third of the novel unfolds at such a glacial pace that readers may need coaxing to stick around for when it gets exciting. Fans of DuPrau’s earnestly environmental Books of Ember series (most recently, The Prophet of Yonwood, BCCB 5/06) may still find much to enjoy here as fantasy melds with messages about the destructive ecological impact humans have on the world. Indeed, after readers have become engaged with the residents of Gracehope, the eventual unveiling of its certain doomed fate because of global warming will likely evoke a strong emotional response and may even inspire a few readers toward environmental activism. Review Code: Ad -- Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2007, Lamb, 336p; Reviewed from galleys, $18.99 and $15.99. Grades 5-7.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2007)
Fourteen-year-old Thea lives in Gracehope, a hidden community underneath the ice. When Peter's family goes to Greenland, their paths intersect and they discover a close connection. Peter and Thea are vividly realized, and their frustrations with the secrets kept by the older generations are keenly felt. The story is immediate and compelling, and Gracehope itself is sketched with sure strokes. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2007, Random/Lamb, 328pp, 15.99, 18.99. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Ruth Cox Clark (VOYA, June 2007 (Vol. 30, No. 2))
With global warming in the news, Stead's debut novel is a welcome addition. Twelve-year-old Peter is excited to join his parents on an expedition to study global warming in Greenland. His father, a glaciologist, and his mother, who is researching the impact of positive DNA mutations on cells, have made several trips, but it is the first time for Peter, who discovers how little there is to do. His boredom ends when the sled dogs drag him into a howling blizzard and he discovers a red circle imbedded in the ice. It marks the entrance to Gracehope, an underground hidden world to which fourteen-year-old Thea's people escaped years ago and which his parents have been trying to locate. The two worlds collide when Thea and her cousin Mattias locate the other end of the tunnel and climb up to explore a world they had only heard of, where the horizon is more than just a definition. When Mattias falls in a crevasse, Peter helps Thea rescue Mattias and guide their sled back down the tunnel into Gracehope. Chapters alternate between Thea's and Peter's perspective, familiarizing the reader with the self-sufficient colony of Gracehope and the role that Peter, who has inherited unique visual skills, and his mother, who grew up in Gracehope, play in the future of this safe haven that is slowly being destroyed by a world their leader shuns. It is an intriguing look at how global warming is affecting the arctic regions, deftly woven into a coming-of-age story. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P M J (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2007, Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, 336p., $15.99 and PLB $18.99. Ages 11 to 15.