LAND OF THE LOST MAMMOTHS

Mike Davis

FACT: Until the late nineteenth century it was widely believed that an ancient Viking colony had survived on the unexplored and ice-locked coast of southeast Greenland. The Danish discovery of the isolated Inuit culture of Ammassalick Fiord in 1884 did not fully dispel the myth. Indeed modern hunters still report evidence of a “lost tribe” living near the notorious and seldom visited Puisortoq glacier – one of the most terrifying places in the Arctic.

STORY: Four teenage scientists – one of them the inventor of a superlight “trike” – win a United Nations scholarship to spend the summer working with Professor Dansgaard at his celebrated Artic wildlife research station in East Greenland. The young scientists think they will be counting reindeer, but instead become the heroes of an outstanding adventure. It all begins with some mysterious old bones in Dansgaard's lab and an expedition to the Valley of the Runes. Before it is over the kids have had to battle screaming ice, a band of marooned Vikings, a sorcerer named Halldor, an Arctic hurricane, and a collapsing ice cave. Aside from discovering a lost world, the young heroes also learn the deep meaning of friendship and non-violence. For readers 12 and older.

MacArthur fellow Mike Davis is the author of several books, including City of Quartz, Dead Cities: And Other Tales, and Ecology of Fear. He lives in San Diego.