North of Danger

North of Danger

Dale Fife

1978 * p. 72 * YA Historical Fiction

North of Danger takes place in WWII Spitsbergen, a sovereign of Norway. It is a fictionalized story based on a true event.

The people living on Spitsbergen, which is situated four hundred miles from the North Pole, fled there after the Germans started to invade Norway.

This story is about Arne Kristiansen, a 12 year old boy living in Spitsbergen. Arnes' father, an activist against the Germans, has fled to the North Pole posed as a glacialist to escape capture.

When Spitsbergen is suddenly told to evacuate because the Germans were coming, Arne refuses to leave. His father is supposed to return in 3 weeks, and will be captured if no one warns him to avoid Spitsbergen. Arne hides in the mines. Soon the whole town is evacuated and Arne is left on his own in the ghost town. He waits above the town for a week, keeping an eye out for German ships and his father. Unfortunately, the Germans arrive. So Arne must make the treacherous trek to reach his father in the dead of winter.

The story is packed with a lot of historical information and is often a little confusing with some of the Norwegian vocabulary. The characters seem a little flat and everything gets resolved a little too nicely and quickly. But the overall story is well written and a typical adventure story about a boy on his own, battling the elements...and Germans.

-Reading level: age 14 & up

-Appropriate for all ages

-A short, fast read

-A few challenging Norwegian words

-The book has no cover jacket, and may be a harder book to locate