Overview
Seventeen-year-old Arden Munro has been raised by her older brother, Scott, ever since the death of their parents 10 years earlier. He has been her only family. But now Scott too is dead—or so believe the local police and everyone in Arden's community. Arden, however, is convinced that Scott has staged his snowmobile accident and purposely disappeared. She will search until she finds him. As Arden obsessively continues her detective hunt, she is forced to examine her feelings of loss and isolation, and to finally realize that these feelings existed long before Scott's accident. Whether or not her brother reappears, where should Arden turn for the support that usually comes from family? The page-turning mystery leads to a heart-tugging conclusion that is at once hopeful and sad, piercing and satisfying.Seventeen-year-old Arden has been raised by her older brother, Scott, since their parents died when she was just six years old, so when Scott is presumed drowned in a snowmobile accident, Arden is convinced he's really run away.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Convinced that her brother's death was staged, a teenage orphan sets off on a relentless search for the truth. "An edge-of-the-seat adventure," said PW in a starred review. Ages 12-up. (Nov.)r Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.VOYA -
Seventeen-year-old Arden (a great name with amusing significance) has been raised by her older brother Scott since her parents were killed in an accident when she was seven. Now, in another strange accident, her brother is dead. Arden is convinced that Scott has staged his death and has merely disappeared to live another life. But no one believes her; friends and adults alike are sure Arden is holding on to false hope, unable to deal with Scott's death. Despite a total lack of support, Arden persists in her belief and continues her search. In discovering things about her brother and parents, she ends up learning a great deal about herself. On one level, this is a novel about trust, taking on responsibility, and self-discovery-all rather neatly combined. However, it also is a wonderful, basic, intriguing, and riveting mystery! You are totally caught up in the chase-is he dead or isn't he? I can honestly utter the cliché: "I couldn't put it down!" Taken as a mystery alone it is worth reading. As a mystery and a novel of self-discovery, Thin Ice blends perfectly to equal a most satisfying read. VOYA Codes: 5Q 4P J (Hard to imagine it being any better written, Broad general YA appeal, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9).School Library Journal
Gr 7-10--Orphaned at age seven, Arden has been raised by her much older brother, Scott. He has allowed her to become an independent young woman. When Arden is a high school senior, Scott is apparently drowned in a snowmobile accident. The vehicle is recovered from a river, but even after a great deal of searching, no body is found. Arden grieves and suffers terrible nightmares until one day she realizes that something about the facts surrounding Scott's death is not right. She becomes convinced that he has staged his own death. His girlfriend is pregnant and Arden believes that he has chosen to disappear rather than face the burden of raising yet another child. No one believes her, so Arden embarks on a search for him on her own. As clue after clue dead ends, she becomes discouraged but stubbornly refuses to believe that Scott is dead. The brilliance of this plot is that readers do not find out the truth until Arden does. This fact will keep young people anxiously turning pages, trying to puzzle out what has actually happened. At the same time, they will understand and empathize with Arden, a strong-willed teen who perseveres in spite of huge obstacles. Scott's character is not developed enough before his disappearance for readers to understand why he might be depressed enough to pull a vanishing act, but this does not detract from the suspense. This is a good mystery that deals also with issues of family, relationships, and responsibility.--Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NCKirkus Reviews
A teenager's stubborn conviction that her brother is still alive carries her past her friends' doubt, the pity of acquaintances, and overwhelming evidence to the contrary in this taut, engagingly cast mystery from the author of Hometown (1995).A decade after their parents' deaths in a plane crash, Arden and her 29-year-old brother Scott have established a comfortable routine in their small Wisconsin town, with Scott the very model of a reliable, conscientious caregiver—though in the wake of a snowmobile accident, he has turned moody. Scott's second snowmobile accident looks fatal—his new snowmobile, helmet, wallet, and other gear, are found at the bottom of a swift river. Then Arden finds a small item in his room that he should have been carrying when he died, and it's enough to make her sure that the incident was staged. Shrugging off school, the skepticism of officials, and the trust of her new guardians, she begins an obsessive search for her brother, or at least for some answers, turning up nothing except the circumstantial but profoundly revealing information that Claire, the woman he had been seeing, is pregnant. Qualey leaves readers wondering until the end whether Arden's belief is justified or just a grieving orphan's desperate fantasy, meanwhile surrounding her with well-drawn, distinctively individual friends and neighbors. In an explosively cathartic climax, Arden spots Scott in a crowd; although she may be more willing to forgive him than readers will, the author gives him believable, if ignoble, reasons for running away, as well as the fiber to return and attempt to make amends for his deception. It's a page-turner, with plenty of surprises and characters who make mistakes but learn from them.