This is a charming book told from the perspectives of a young girl, Isla, and a Danish sailor, Bo. Isla lives a lonely life with her mother and younger brother in the small town of Hobart in Tasmania. When her mother brings home Bo, he opens up an entire world that she never knew existed. He describes the voyages on his ship, the Nella Gay, to Antartica. His descriptions allow Isla and the reader to see, feel, hear, and sometimes taste the experiences of travelling to one of the most forbidding and beautiful places on earth.
Their friendship ends when the Nella Gay is wrecked and scrapped, meaning Bo will not be returning to the port of Hobart, but their time together has allowed Isla to envision a future for herself far from the tiny world she knows. It is a novel about friendship, dreams, and possibility.
I would recommend this novel for secondary students or adults. Younger students would, I believe, be confused and put off by the less than clear transition between narrators, times, and places.
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