Arthur Ransome 
Winter Holiday 

‘You know what it’s like. Dark at teatime and sleeping indoors: nothing ever happens in the winter holidays.’Or so Nancy thinks. Then the lake ices over completely and the Swallows and Amazons, along with Dick and Dorothea – the D s – plan a race to find the North Pole. How will they reach it if they can t sail? By sledges of course! But when a blizzard blows up and there is a mix up about signals, the D s disappear into the Arctic night. Disaster looms. Can the Swallows and Amazons save their friends? BACKSTORY: Crack the Swallows and Amazons’ code and learn all about the real Arctic exploration that inspired this book.