Victoria Secord is a champion musher. One day she leaves her home to go to Cook’s house to look at some more Alaskan Huskies for her team. Along the way a freak snowstorm and an injured city boy challenge her skills and courage and helps to create bonds that could not have been forged elsewhere.

“I wake up to spider webs of frost hanging over my face. Unlike some mornings when I’m confused for a moment about where I am, I have an exact understanding of my situation.”

Ice Dogs by Terry Lynn Johnson is a great book. There is a lot of suspense and it is a good story. It is told in the first person from Victoria’s point of view. The characters develop along the way. For example, at first, Victoria yells at the injured city boy for doing things wrong for survival but soon she realizes that she needs to teach him the skills they all need to survive instead of yelling at him. You learn a little bit about the dogs and the life of a musher. You also learn a little bit about survival skills although this is not a how-to guide. Although most of the book involves just Victoria, the boy, and the dogs, it is their fight against nature that makes you want to keep reading.

This book would be good for boys and girls ages 9 to 13 who like survival stories or dog stories.

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