With shades of When You Reach Me, The Thing About Jellyfish, and Bridge to Terabithia, and a big, timely climate hook at its core, here is a heartfelt middle grade debut about the inevitability of change that will resonate profoundly during these extraordinary times.
Spring has arrived, and yet an unyielding winter freeze has left Louisa snowed into her apartment building for months with parents coping with extreme stress, a little brother struggling with cabin fever, and—awkwardly—her neighbor and former close friend, Luke. The new realities of this climate disaster have not only affected Louisa’s family, but when Luke’s dad has an ice-related accident and it’s unclear if he’ll recover, both families’ lives are turned upside down.
Desperate to find an escape from the grief plaguing their homes, Louisa and Luke build a massive snow fort in their yard. But their creation opens up an otherworldly window to what could lie ahead, and sets them on a mission: to restore the universe to its rightful order, so the ice will melt and life will return to “normal”.
With a deft combination of heartfelt prose and a touch of magic, Monica Sherwood’s affecting debut novel is a relatable story of families grappling with—and emerging from—a different kind of quarantine.
Monica Sherwood grew up on Long Island and currently lives in Brooklyn. She is a former elementary school teacher with a master’s degree in Childhood and Special Education from Hunter College, and currently works in educational technology as a product designer for teachers and kids. Monica began dreaming up The Ice House during a particularly long, cold winter, inventing a world “where snow and ice came to represent that desperate feeling of being hopelessly stuck in one place … but where change is, eventually, inevitable.” The Ice House is her debut novel.View all by Monica Sherwood
