Melt - Ele Fountain

 

Yutu lives in a village in the Arctic Circle, in an area where the warming climate is threatening the home he lives in with his grandmother.  Bea has just moved to yet another new school due to her father's job and isn't settling in well, so when her father suggests she join him on a flight up to the Arctic as part of his job, she jumps at the chance.  However, when the pair land, Bea is forced to flee alone after watching her father being attacked by those who were due to be meeting him.  Something is very wrong.  When Yutu and Bea's worlds collide, they must help each other in a fight for survival.

Yutu and Bea are very different people.  Yutu has lived his entire life in one tiny Inuit village where everybody knows each other and his friends are people he has known since birth.  Life is lived using the land and the animals around them to the maximum, and the village works as a community.  Bea, however, is a very insular character, with good reason: her father's job as a geologist means that he spends his life moving from oil company to oil company, helping them find the prime locations for drilling.  Constantly being the new girl in school is difficult so she has stopped trying to make friends and does her best to ignore the bullies, but life is lonely, especially as her father has begun behaving very secretively about work, something that is very out of character.  Yutu longs to move away, see different places and experience what the rest of the world has to offer; whereas Bea is desperate to stop moving, put down roots and find somewhere to call home. When the pair are forced together, their very different worlds collide. 

Ele has a way of writing books for children that are both engaging as well as showing children what is happening in other parts of the world, highlighting important and often sensitive issues in an age appropriate way, and Melt is no exception.  Climate change is having a devastating effect upon our planet and this is brilliantly but subtly highlighted throughout the book: Yutu's grandmother's home is in danger due to the rising temperatures/melting permafrost; seals are no longer as easy to be found and therefore hunting for essential meat is more difficult, and oil companies are ever more desperate to find the right places to drill that will yield the most oil for the biggest profit.  Although the terms climate change and global warming are never uttered, they are evident themes throughout the story.

Melt is a gripping story of bravery, determination and friendship that highlights the environmental impact of what we are doing to the Earth.  But be warned: it's hard to put down once you've started reading it!   

Due for release on the 29th April, this is a book that you should pre-order!