Lupine Winner 2008-2009, MSBA Nominee 2009-2010

It was definitely better than I thought it would be, and different too. Genesis's father goes out on his boat to repair a dock one day, and doesn't return. Before his body can be found, the lake freezes over. I thought the story was going to be more about the financial and insurance complications that would ensue following such an event, but it wasn't. It was more about how the people deal with the situation, which I think made it better. I just think that the description of the book makes it seem different. ( )

Reviewed by Ashley B for TeensReadToo.com

Seventeen-year-old Genesis Sommer is living a normal life.

It's late fall in northern Maine. She goes to school and she has a part time job as a waitress at the Lazy Moose, a local restaurant. She has a stepmother and twins as half-brothers. Her father works at a logging camp, where he stays for long periods of time.

One day her father left for work, dropping her off with her uncle Perry to work on her car. That was the last time Genesis saw him.

The police started looking for Mike Sommer right away. They found his boat on the lake. Then the lake froze over. There is no body as evidence that Mike is dead. Genesis won't believe it until there is proof. Her life has changed now.

The winter is neverending. Genesis hears rumors about her father. She begins to search for herself for the truth about the man she thought she knew everything about.

From the start of this book, I was hooked. Though it is not normally the type of book I would read, I loved it none the less.

Genesis was a great, strong character who was easy to relate to. After hearing the rumors Genesis was told about her father, even I had no idea what happened to him. I was happy with the ending, although I would have liked to have known more about what happens later on. Other than that, SEASON OF ICE was a really good story.

If you ever come across it, you should pick it up. ( )

As winter draws near, Genesis's father, a timber man, takes on a dock repair job while a storm looms on the horizon. As the hours pass and her father still hasn't returned, Genesis increasingly grows concerned. Her knowledge of her father's habit of not wearing a life jacket, rather tossing it nearby on the boat's deck "just in case" becomes more ominous. The wind has kicked up and the waves have grown choppy on the sea; her father has still not returned. Genesis and her step-mom Linda contact the sheriff and a search party is organized. Eventually the weather forces the sheriff to call off the search. Genesis is numb from both the cold and the recognition that her father is still missing. As the days go by and the ice blankets the sea, she is left to wonder whether her father is entombed below the surface.

I found the story and the detail wonderfully tied together with the setting. The exterior world of ice and snow matches the interior of Genesis's struggle. She is frozen in uncertainty, waiting for the thaw - and the author does an excellent job of meshing the two. I feel that Season of Ice is a compelling read that was very well written. ( )

In this spare read, Genesis must come to terms with the disappearance of her father in an icy lake in the northern Maine village where they live. She is left with her stepmother to wonder what could have happened to him, with no resolution to come until the winter ends and the ice thaws. ( )