OverDrive would like to use cookies to store information on your computer to improve your user experience at our Website. One of the cookies we use is critical for certain aspects of the site to operate and has already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but this could affect certain features or services of the site. To find out more about the cookies we use and how to delete them, click here to see our Privacy Policy.
With a little luck and a pack of pugs, anything is paws-ible! When True Winter comes, it’s time for the Great Northern Race! The best sled teams in the world must reach a mysterious man called the Snowfather. He will grant one wish to the winners. Young racers Sika and Shen want to win more than anything. But they don’t have big sled dogs—all they have is sixty-six yappy, yippy puppy pugs. Can this unlikely team make their dreams come true?
For early chapter book readers who are ready for something longer, the Not-So-Impossible Tales are packed with humor, action, and color illustrations on almost every page. A New York Public Library Best Book for Kids, 2016 "A madcap, magical blend of fluff and other good stuff."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
With a little luck and a pack of pugs, anything is paws-ible! When True Winter comes, it’s time for the Great Northern Race! The best sled teams in the world must reach a mysterious man called the Snowfather. He will grant one wish to the winners. Young racers Sika and Shen want to win more than anything. But they don’t have big sled dogs—all they have is sixty-six yappy, yippy puppy pugs. Can this unlikely team make their dreams come true?
For early chapter book readers who are ready for something longer, the Not-So-Impossible Tales are packed with humor, action, and color illustrations on almost every page. A New York Public Library Best Book for Kids, 2016 "A madcap, magical blend of fluff and other good stuff."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Excerpts-
From the book
One
Winter came in the night, like a white sheet laid over the world. It came so coldly and so fast that the waves of the ocean froze as they rolled. The good ship Lucky Star froze with them, trapped tight in the suddenly solid sea.
Shen, the cabin boy, the youngest member of the crew, stirred in his sleep as the sounds of rippling and splashing faded into frozen silence. He snuggled deeper under the covers, trying to keep warm. Into the silence came other noises. First, the creaking of timber as the ice tightened its grip upon the old ship’s sides. Then the voice of Captain Jeggings, bellowing, “All hands on deck!”
The crew bumbled blinking from their bunks. Able Seaman Bo; Mungbean, the ship’s cook; and Shen. They stumbled out on deck and stared at the frozen waves, which reared up all around them.
“Don’t just stand there!” shouted Captain Jeggings, hauling an icy rope. “Get us out of here!”
The rope snapped in his hands with a sound like breaking glass. The Lucky Star groaned and quivered as the ice clenched tighter.
“What will we do?” asked Shen.
But Captain Jeggings didn’t know. Neither did Able Seaman Bo. Neither did Mungbean. They’d weathered storms and sat out still waters, but they’d never seen a sea like this before.
Creak. Crunch. Big tusks of ice pushed the planks apart and pierced the Lucky Star’s sides. Slosh. Gurgle. Cold black water that hadn’t frozen yet came swirling in. The ship sagged, and all the icicles that decked her rig- ging tinkled cheerfully. But Captain Jeggings couldn’t see anything to be cheerful about.
“The cargo!” he shouted. “We must save the cargo!”
All summer long, the Lucky Star had been cruising from port to port, selling this and buying that. Two thousand chunky-knit sweaters from the Isles of Aran, a second- hand snowmobile . . . and sixty-six pugs. Captain Jeggings had said those tiny dogs would sell like hot pies. Now, down in the leaking hold, they let out a terrible howling as cold sea sloshed round their paws.
“The dogs!” shouted Shen. “We must save the dogs!”
Mungbean and Bo went running down the steep stairway that led to the cargo holds and came struggling back up with crates of sweaters. Captain Jeggings hauled the snowmobile over the ship’s side. Meanwhile, Shen turned over the boxes where more pugs were sleeping. The tiny dogs raced up on deck and jumped off the LuckyStar ’s sides onto the ice. Shen had heard people talk about rats leaving a sinking ship before, but he’d never heard of pugs leaving a freezing one. There’s a first time for everything, he thought. He dragged the sack that held their leashes and harnesses up onto the deck and threw it after them.
The LuckyStar shuddered again, squeezed in the teeth of the ice. Planks popped out of the deck. The mast trembled like a chopped tree. Captain Jeggings shouted as he jumped over the side.
But Shen had thought of something else that needed to be saved. “The dog food! It’s still on board!”
“It’ll have to stay there, then!” yelled Bo, jumping down onto the ice with Mungbean. Shen passed the smallest of the pugs down to them, then jumped after them.
With a final heave, the ice crushed the old ship flat.
Shen and the pugs stood and shivered, while Captain...
About the Author-
PHILIP REEVE is the acclaimed author of the Mortal Engines/Predator Cities series, the Fever Crumb series, and the Carnegie Medal–winning Here Lies Arthur. He was born and raised in the seaside town of Brighton and has been writing down adventures since he was five years old. You can learn more about Philip Reeve at philip-reeve.com and follow him on Twitter at @philipreeve1. SARAH McINTYRE has written and illustrated several picture books and comics for children. Sarah’s delightfully over-the-top drawings and mischievous monkey illustrations brought her and Philip together for this series. You can learn more about Sarah McIntyre at jabberworks.co.uk and follow her at @jabberworks.
Reviews-
Starred review from October 1, 2015 Two kids and their 66 pugs enter a magical dog-sled race. The Cakes in Space (2015) team returns for a ridiculous winter adventure story. When the ocean freezes solid right underneath their boat]and also freezes the boat itself]the Lucky Star's crew faces tough decisions. Shen's left behind with their cargo of 66 pugs. He finds a nearby town and learns that the frozen ocean's caused by True Winter, a once-in-a-lifetime event heralding a race to the top of the world]the winner gets a wish from the Snowfather. Shen and Sika hitch the pugs to her elderly's grandfather's sled]he nearly won last True Winter, and Sika's wish is for him to become well and live long enough to race again. The wacky competitors include a villainous Brit who loves to cheat (with tricks like the classic misleading detour sign). The obstacles on the race range from yetis (who have a noodle bar, because "Yeti Spaghetti Bar sounded too obvious") to a Kraken. (McIntyre's doofy, bug-eyed pugs are never more hilarious than in the glorious two-page spread where they battle the sea monster.) As the Snowfather can't save Sika's grandfather, the story's silliness seamlessly transitions to musings about the immortality of stories and an old man's positive end-of-life portrayal. A madcap, magical blend of fluff and other good stuff. (Fantasy. 7-10)
COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
November 1, 2015
Gr 2-4-The third "Not-So-Impossible Tale" by Reeve and McIntyre is about a race through magical snow in a once-in-a-lifetime winter. Whoever gets to the North Pole first has their wish granted by the Snowfather (not to be confused with Santa Claus). Shen, a shipwrecked young sailor, and his friend Sika, who lives at the "Po of Ice," have 66 pugs to pull their sled for the duration of the week-long race. They may have the best reason for wanting to win the Great Northern race, but they have to get past the faster sleds being pulled by robot dogs and polar bears. Just as in the other two stand-alone books in the series, this installment has several unexpected twists. People turn into Yetis, noodles become addictive, and snow can echo, form bridges or were-snowmen, and fall upward. Compared to the previous installment, Oliver and the Seawigs (Random, 2014), the ending here is a bit predictable. Nevertheless, chapter book readers and fans of the series will enjoy this winter romp. VERDICT A fine addition to school or public library chapter book collections.-Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, AB, Canada
Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from November 15, 2015 Grades 3-5 *Starred Review* Young orphan Shen rescues 66 pugs from a ship wrecked on frozen seas and puts them to good use: pulling a sled in a once-in-a-lifetime race to the fabled Snowfather's palace at the North Pole. Accompanied by new friend Sika and competing against the likes of Helga Hammerfest ( I am always getting mistaken for a man, on account of my size, and also my beard ) and Professor Shackleton Jones (packing a carbon-fiber sled driven by robotic Woof-O-Tron 2000s), the young mushers undertake an Arctic odyssey that carries them across 50 different kinds of snow, over the aptly named Kraken Deep, and past such typically northern hazards as trolls and singing, noodle-loving yetis, to their inevitable, successful conclusion. Reeve's narrative, never dull, is surrounded on nearly every page with McIntyre's black-and-green cartoon scenes of snowy foolery (picture it: pugs in sweaters). The properly happy close is emotionally heightened by a poignant meeting between the benign Snowfather and Sika's beloved, dying grandfather. It's an effective combination of off-the-wall tomfoolerythe 66 pugs alone are a laughand deeper themes, and the end result is a story that is rich in humor and meaning both. Pug power!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)
July 1, 2016 Shipwrecked in a fantastical Arctic with sixty-six pugs, Shen teams up with local girl Sika in a great sled race to find the Snowfather. Pulled by the pugs, the children journey north, encountering yeti at a noodle bar and self-shaping weresnowmen before they ultimately prove their mettle as adventurers--and as faithful friends. Playful two-color illustrations add comical details to the magical hijinks.
(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
Kirkus Reviews starred review
"A madcap, magical blend of fluff and other good stuff."
Booklist starred review
"With an offbeat approach and beautiful, evocative language, this unusual, fablelike novel will appeal to literary-minded teens."
Title Information+
Publisher
Random House Children's Books
OverDrive Read
Release date:
EPUB eBook
Release date:
Digital Rights Information+
Copyright Protection (DRM) required by the Publisher may be applied to this title to limit or prohibit printing or copying. File sharing or redistribution is prohibited. Your rights to access this material expire at the end of the lending period. Please see Important Notice about Copyrighted Materials for terms applicable to this content.
Please update to the latest version of the OverDrive app to stream videos.
Device Compatibility Notice
The OverDrive app is required for this format on your current device.
Bahrain, Egypt, Hong Kong, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen
You've reached your library's checkout limit for digital titles.
To make room for more checkouts, you may be able to return titles from your Checkouts page.
Excessive Checkout Limit Reached.
There have been too many titles checked out and returned by your account within a short period of time.
Try again in several days. If you are still not able to check out titles after 7 days, please contact Support.
You have already checked out this title. To access it, return to your Checkouts page.
This title is not available for your card type. If you think this is an error contact support.
There are no copies of this issue left to borrow. Please try to borrow this title again when a new issue is released.
| Sign In
You will be prompted to sign into your library account on the next page.
If this is your first time selecting “Send to NOOK,” you will then be taken to a Barnes & Noble page to sign into (or create) your NOOK account. You should only have to sign into your NOOK account once to link it to your library account. After this one-time step, periodicals will be automatically sent to your NOOK account when you select "Send to NOOK."
The first time you select “Send to NOOK,” you will be taken to a Barnes & Noble page to sign into (or create) your NOOK account. You should only have to sign into your NOOK account once to link it to your library account. After this one-time step, periodicals will be automatically sent to your NOOK account when you select "Send to NOOK."
You can read periodicals on any NOOK tablet or in the free NOOK reading app for iOS, Android or Windows 8.
