Dale Fife (1)

Embarrassed that his house is also a depot, Barney misses New York City, needs a burro for the July 4th parade, wants to join the Silvertown Rangers. Most of all, he needs a friend, and Indian Jim Owl, his eleven-year-old equal, is just not like Steven who lived next door, not like Dusty Dow, the Rangers' leader. Barney resents the ""dude"" designation but the Indian way is strange; still, he knows Jim sees things he never notices and he enjoys swapping biggests and bests (four rattlesnakes vs. five gangsters at one time). Comes the Glorious Fourth, Barney comes closer to understanding friendship, gives his prize blanket (with the Sears label) to Jim and gets encouragement from desirable Dusty. Striking a healthy balance between loneliness and uncertainty but almost too quiet to be heard.… (meer)

Foreward: The story of twelve-year-old Aren Kristiansen, n the Achipelago of Svalbard, is a fictionalized account of a true incident. Svalbard, more often called Spitsbergen, lies within the Arctic Ocean approximately ten degrees, or four hundred nautical miles, from the North Pole. It is under the sovereignty of Norway. In August of 1940, British warships stood in Advent Bay off Longyearbyen, the capital. Their mission was to evacuate the entire population, some three thousand people, most of them coal miners and their families. The German Army, which had already taken over Norway, was expected to invade Spitsbergen to cut off the shipment of polar coal to Europe and to destroy or take over weather and radio stations critically necessary for the safety of Allied shipping. Unknown to the authorities, one person, Arne Kristiansen, was left behind. This is the story of what happened after the ships moved out of the harbour and the long dark polar winter was about to close down.

From back cover: They've Come! Nazis have occupied the town! Can Arne escape across the snow without being seen--and shot? Breathless adventure during the dark days of World War 11.… (meer)