The Frozen North by Edith Horton is a free public domain eBook that was originally published in 1904. Subtitled An Account of Arctic Exploration for Use in Schools, the text is a very interesting and readable account of the search for the North Pole.
If you are looking for an upper elementary or middle school geography option, The Frozen North provides you with 21 lessons written in chronological fashion with a focus on the personalities involved:
Accounts of the pioneers in this work of discovery, of Franklin and of Kane, and in our own day of Nansen and Peary, are available only in such exhaustive works as are unsuitable reading for children, and which sometimes tax the patience of the adult. Hence the work done by these intrepid explorers upon the American continent and north of it remains unstudied and unknown.
It is hoped that this book may give our young people sufficient knowledge of the subject to enable them to read farther with intelligence, and that it may also inspire them with interest in the many expeditions that are being sent out.
The descriptions of the strange people who inhabit these cold countries, their dress, their ways of living, their customs, and their manners, all interest the child, and meet his natural desire to hear about other people than those living in the part of the world about him.
No complete history has been attempted, but rather a series of sketches which, it is hoped, will enable the reader to appreciate the achievements of the brave men who have lent and are lending their best efforts to the task of unlocking and wresting from the Frozen North, the secrets so necessary for the advancement of science.
The Frozen North
Explorers covered include:
- Sir John Franklin.
- Elisha Kent Kane.
- The Eskimos.
- S. A. Andrée.
- Robert E. Peary.
The book is very approachable and heavily illustrated and can be used to whet the appetite for learning how exciting geography can be. And it is free!
Free eBook
Suggestions
- There are 21 chapters. If you include extra weeks for projects you can expand the text to cover a full year.
- Create a notebook.
- Design a representative cover for the notebook.
- After the chapter is read ask the student to provide a narration.
- Create a timeline of events.
- Draw or copy a map of the North Pole (see below).
- Map the various trips.
- Learn more about each explorer mentioned. Include this on an explorer page or Drawing and Writing Paper.
- Investigate one or more of the following topics:
- Provide a narration of one or more of the above topics.
- The book is written in a nonfiction form. Use the text to create a short story.
- Compare and contrast the North Pole and the South Pole.
- Use this study as a template for creating a study of another location.
Additional Resources
Aurora Borealis
Information from NOAA.
The Earth on December 21
Image from book.
The Earth on June 21
Image from book.
The Frozen North Map
Large PDF suitable for printing.
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