When an impatient queen longs to taste the delicious but fragile melidrop fruit, two explorers use "Inventiveness, Desperation, and Perseverance" to try to bring it to her.

A young queen who rules seven kingdoms is far too busy and important to leave her palace, so her loyal subjects send gifts from far and wide: monkeys, flamingoes, giraffes, exotic fruits.But the thing she longs for most of all has never survived the journey. Who can bring the Queen her heart's desire? Only Bartlett has the inventiveness, desperation and perseverence to complete the task. Does the Queen have patience enough to keep her side of the bargain? A flamboyant adventure story, full of atmosphere, wit and suspense, by the author of Antonio S and the Mystery of Theodore Guzman.

A larger-than-life heroic story about Bartlett the Adventurer who captures an iceberg and braves great danger to bring a most exotic present to the Queen.

When an impatient queen longs to taste the delicious but fragile melidrop fruit, two explorers use "Inventiveness, Desperation, and Perseverance" to try to bring it to her.

The Karluk set out in 1913 in search of an undiscovered continent, with the largest scientific staff ever sent into the Arctic. Soon after, winter had begun, they were blown off course by polar storms, the ship became imprisoned in ice, and the expedition was abandoned by its leader. Hundreds of miles from civilization, the castaways had no choice but to find solid ground as they struggled against starvation, snow blindness, disease, exposure--and each other. After almost twelve months battling the elements, twelve survivors were rescued, thanks to the heroic efforts of their captain, Bartlett, the Ice Master, who traveled by foot across the ice and through Siberia to find help. Drawing on the diaries of those who were rescued and those who perished, Jennifer Niven re-creates with astonishing accuracy the ill-fated journey and the crews desperate attempts to find a way home.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A white-knuckle tale of polar exploration and heroism in the Gilded Age from the New York Times bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers. • “A splendid book in every way…a marvelous nonfiction thriller.” —The Wall Street Journal On July 8, 1879, Captain George Washington De Long and his team of thirty-two men set sail from San Francisco on the USS Jeanette. Heading deep into uncharted Arctic waters, they carried the aspirations of a young country burning to be the first nation to reach the North Pole. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the Jeannette's hull was breached by an impassable stretch of pack ice, forcing the crew to abandon ship amid torrents of rushing of water. Hours later, the ship had sunk below the surface, marooning the men a thousand miles north of Siberia, where they faced a terrifying march with minimal supplies across the endless ice pack. Enduring everything from snow blindness and polar bears to ferocious storms and labyrinths of ice, the crew battled madness and starvation as they struggled desperately to survive. With thrilling twists and turns, In The Kingdom of Ice is a spellbinding tale of heroism and determination in the most brutal place on Earth.