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Description edit
I have been in love with Titus Oates for quite a while now—which is ridiculous, since he's been dead for ninety years. But look at it this way. In ninety years I'll be dead, too, and the age difference won't matter. Sym is not your average teenage girl. She is obsessed with the Antarctic... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Uncle Victor: Sym's deceased father's business partner and Sym's uncle. Believed to be the educational source of all knowledge according to Sym.
- Sigurd: A "Norwegian" teen, the "son" of Manfred Bruch.
- Maxine: One of Sym's friend from school. She sometimes teases Sym.
- Manfred Bruch: A Norwegian filmmaker.
- Titus Oates: Sym's imaginary companion, based on a real British polar explorer who died in 1911. Appears to be quite the gentlemen.
- Lee Konitz: Add a description of this character.
- Nikki: One of Sym's friends at school in England.
- Mike
- Scott
- Mimi: Classmate that Simm can't stand. Quite the loose, popular girl on campus.
- Jon
- Clough
- Ms. Adolphus: A fellow traveler on the Antarctic Expedition. She loves penguins.
- Amundsen
- Shackleton
- Brenda
- Bob
- Waldron: A man in his thirties that Sym's teenage friend Maxine meets on the Internet.
- Lillian: Sym's mother.
- Larry
- Mr. Pogsbaum
- Mr. Briggs
- Sym: The main character and first person narrator, Sym is a shy 14-year-old girl who has read all about the polar regions and has an imaginary reincarnation of a polar explorer for a best friend.
Quotes edit
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““It's true: Everyone needs a reason to stay alive -- someone who justifies your existence. Someone who loves you. Not beyond all reaon. Just loves you. Even just shows an interest. Even someone who doesn't exist, or isn't yours. No, no! They don't even have to love you! They just have to be there to love! Target for your arrows. Magnetic Pole to drag on your compass needle and stop it spinning and tell you where you're heading and...Someone to soak up all the yearning. That's what I think.””
Victor -
““Unhappy people do the oddest, most terrible things, just trying to keep despair at bay. All you have to do is accept them...go around them...take evasive action.””
Victor -
““Whereabouts, Uncle? What about school? We don’t have the right clothes for the sun. There wouldn’t be swimming, would there? I’ve got homework. I’ll have to ask Mum. Mum wouldn’t like. . . “ My objections and misgivings soon lay piled on every flat surface in my tiny room.”
Sym
Setting & Locations edit
- Antarctica
- Paris
- Symmes Hole: A theoretical opening into the lower regions of the earth.
- Camp Aurora: The Pengwings Travel Company's Antarctic base.
- Iceland: The location of Sym's family vacation five years ago.
- Buenos Aires: A city where the Pengwings travellers bound for Antarctica make a transfer flight.
- England: Sym's native country.
- Leisuredome: The central gathering area for the Pengwings travellers at Camp Aurora.
First Sentence edit
I have been in love with Titus Oates for quite a while now-which is ridiculous, since he's been dead for ninety years.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Geraldine McCaughrean (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Country: Great Britain
Publication Date: 2005
ISBN: 0192719831
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Country: Great Britain
Publication Date: 2005
ISBN: 0192719831
Page Count: 270
Awards edit
- Michael L. Printz Award (2008, Winner)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PZ7.M1286Whi 2007
- Dewey: Add the Dewey Classification.
Notes for Parents edit
Reading Level: Young AdultsIt is a confusing book.. and it should not be recommended to little kids becuase it has some unappropriate love thoughts!
Subjects edit
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