Race to the Frozen North

March 25, 2024
Though he was the first American to reach the North Pole during a 1909 expedition, Black explorer Matthew Henson (1866–1955) was largely excluded from accounts of the journey, a reality that Johnson (A Nest of Vipers) endeavors to rectify in this exciting introduction to a national hero. In brief first-person chapters, Johnson chronicles how 11-year-old Henson, born to sharecropper parents, fled from his abusive household seeking a better life. Plainspoken prose details physical altercations with his stepmother, who beat him with a stick that was “harder than hell and had sharp points that cut into my skin.” After arriving in Washington, D.C., Henson ran errands for a café owner before signing on as a cabin boy aboard the Katie Hines. Henson is 15 when he’s employed on the SS Kite, a steamship bound for the Arctic. While credit—and a presidential medal—was awarded to Naval officer Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (1856–1920) and company, it was Henson and Ikwah, the crew’s “Inuit guide,” who initially set foot at their destination. Johnson chronicles Henson’s adventures with the breakneck speed of an action film; smudged charcoal drawings by Hickey (The Christmas Doll) depict these experiences throughout. Ages 8–12.