A Suffragist's Guide to the Antarctic

by Yi Shun Lai

Overview

A teen’s fight for suffrage turns into one of survival when her crew’s Antarctic expedition ship gets stuck in the ice in this historical novel told in journal entries perfect for fans of Gary Paulsen and The Downstairs Girl.

November 1914.

Clara Ketterling-Dunbar is one of twenty-eight crew members of The Resolute—a ship meant for an Antarctic expedition now marooned on ice one hundred miles from the shore of the continent. An eighteen-year-old American, Clara has told the crew she’s a twenty-one-year-old Canadian. Since the war broke out, sentiment toward Americans has not been the most favorable, and Clara will be underestimated enough simply for being a woman without also giving away just how young she is. Two members of the crew know her nationality, but no one knows the truth of her activities in England before The Resolute set sail.

She and her suffragist sisters in the Women’s Social & Political Union were waging war of a different kind in London. They taught Clara to fight. And now, even marooned on the ice, she won’t stop fighting for women’s rights...or for survival. In the wilderness of Antarctica, Clara is determined to demonstrate what a woman is truly capable of—if the crew will let her.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665937764
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	217,842
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Yi Shun Lai lives in Southern California, and she can talk to you forever about plants and animals and deserts both hot and cold. She volunteers for ShelterBox, an international disaster relief organization, and was once invited to be a crew member aboard an Antarctic cruise line. She’s the author of novels Not a Self-Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu and A Suffragist’s Guide to the Antarctic and memoir Pin Ups. You can read her essays in Shondaland and Brevity. Find her on the web at TheGoodDirt.org.

Read an Excerpt

Antarctic Expedition Feared Lost! ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION FEARED LOST!
Staff Editorial, London Daily Times

1 November 1914

Amidst the carnage of the Great War, another strike against hope: Sir Douglas Henderson’s much-anticipated crossing of the Antarctic continent is presumed doomed, with all crew members assumed deceased. As there has been no communication from the expedition ship The Resolute since mid-October, one must assume the worst.

The news from the expedition was already bleak, with colder-than-usual temperatures in the Antarctic spring setting the timeline back by weeks. The ship became locked in sea ice a mere hundred miles from their desired destination on the Antarctic continent. Then the oil for the engines that were meant to propel the expedition sledges across Sir Douglas’s beloved “Blue Continent” was reported hopelessly frozen, rendering the sledges useless even if the crew could manage to make shore. Who knows what other bad luck has befallen the expedition since it last sent word?

Among the missing crew is Canadian Clara Ketterling-Dunbar, the only woman on crew and first-ever woman on any polar expedition. This newspaper has found fact that she is a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union, that group of dangerous suffragettes angling for a voice in what is rightfully a man’s world!

Sir Douglas would have been well advised to not overlook the old truism that women on board are bad luck to begin with.

Editorial Reviews

11/06/2023

Lai paints a brutal portrait of Antarctica’s unforgiving landscape via the detailed journal entries of a white-cued 18-year-old from Pennsylvania who longs to prove that she is as capable as any man in this insightful 1914-set historical debut. Determined not to end up married to a controlling man like her mother, Clara Ketterling-Dunbar joins the suffragist movement in London. When WWI puts their fight on the back burner, Clara lies about her age, nationality, and past to impulsively enlist in an ill-fated, all-male expedition to Antarctica. After their ship sinks, leaving the crew of 28 stranded on ice floes, Clara resolves to show that she can do more for their survival efforts than sew and cut hair—even if it means making enemies. Alongside her keen observations, Clara provides historical and scientific introspection into how to survive not just in Antarctica, but as an independent woman in the early 20th century. Though her observations about men (“A man will fill any dead space, if only just to hear themselves talk out loud”) are ironically similar to the female stereotypes addressed in the text that she hopes to disprove, Clara is a defiant and resilient heroine who immediately endears herself to both the reader and her motley crew. As tension mounts and survival becomes uncertain, Lai neatly underscores the courage it took—and still takes—to be a woman in a male-dominated world. Ages 12–up. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

A Junior Library Guild Selection

From the Publisher

★ "A young woman joins an Antarctic voyage at the dawning of World War I in this gripping—and sometimes gut-wrenching—adventure tale. . . Lai showcases her incredible skills as a storyteller. . .. Witty and poignant commentary on unimaginable peril and infuriating injustice (plus some vengeance) ensures that this historical fiction will be long remembered."

Shelf Awareness

"Lai successfully blends the events of Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition with the social climate of the suffragist movement in 1914 and pairs it with a sharp-witted, charismatic narrator who readers can easily root for."

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

02/01/2024

Gr 9 Up—Eighteen-year-old American suffragist Clara Ketterling-Dunbar is on the adventure of a lifetime on an Antarctic Expedition in 1914. As the only woman on a crew of 28 members of The Resolute, she has to work as hard or harder than the men to prove her place on board. The crew of the British ship believes her to be a 21-year-old Canadian (she pretends because British sentiment isn't favorable of America's lack of women's suffrage and wartime assistance), and her adventure changes into a challenge when The Resolute is crushed by ice and sunk in the sea. The expedition becomes a survival situation as the crew camp in tents, stranded on ice floes. Clara has had lots of adventure in her lifetime. Growing up in the early 1900s she had the opportunity to learn about the outdoors, riding, and hunting with her mother. She also has recently traveled overseas to fight with the Women's Social and Political Union in London. When World War I broke out, she signed up for an Antarctic trip, keeping a journal for readers to learn about her adventures. VERDICT A great historical adventure for young adults, told in journal entries. This book would appeal to readers looking for a strong female role model and would be a welcome libraries serving teens.—Nancy Hawkins

School Library Journal

★ 2023-11-04
A young suffragist writes a real-time log of her adventures in Antarctica.

Lai takes Sir Ernest Shackleton’s famous 1914 expedition to Antarctica and adds a twist: How would adding a woman to the crew have affected the story? In her version, 18-year-old white American girl Clara Ketterling-Dunbar claims to be 21 and Canadian, since the Brits aren’t happy that America hasn’t yet joined the Great War. As Clara begins her story, their ship, the Resolute, has sunk after being crushed by pack ice. The 28 stranded crew members need to work together harmoniously in order to have any chance of survival. With her heart still tied to the women’s suffrage movement she fought for, Clara bristles at being asked to make biscuits and mend clothing. But while she abandoned her mother as well as her American and British pro-suffrage colleagues for falling short of her ideals, she can’t abandon her crewmates. When one she refers to as the Villain attempts to rape her, Clara fights him off, badly injuring him and causing a rift in the party. And yet they must try to survive. As a character, Clara feels modern but not anachronistic; she’s wrestling with social issues that continue to resonate today, and her strong voice propels readers through an adventure as compelling as Shackleton’s own to a heartfelt, realistic conclusion.

Polar exploration transforms a young woman in unexpected and interesting ways in this original, evocative tale. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews

What if a woman had been on Ernest Shackleton's ENDURANCE expedition in 1914? Li Shun Lai creates just this scenario, and narrator Jade Wheeler steps up with just the right blend of moxie, defiance, and wit to bring Clara Ketterling-Dunbar to life. Clara is an 18-year-old American suffragist who travels to England to fight for the vote with Emmeline Pankhurst. But when the suffragists put their fight on the back burner with the advent of the war, Clara applies for a place on an expedition to the Antarctic. Wheeler's energy and timing are perfect; she burns with injustice when mocked or asked to make biscuits and is near tears when the dogs are lost. The upper-class captain, bullying villain, and multiple supportive working-class crew members each have their own believable accents and personalities. A.B. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2024 - AudioFile