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Books Set in Antarctica and the Arctic

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We are so excited to kick off the year’s Book Voyage Reading Challenge! Or if you found this post just looking for an Antarctica book or Arctic fiction, we hope you’ll love the book recommendations.

Three tilted book covers in shades of teal, middle reading How the Penguins Saved Veronica

Of all the regions on our planned armchair travel journey, this is likely the one you’ve read the least about. Grab a comfy blanket and a hot drink, then join us to read one of the best books set in Antarctica or the Arctic Circle.

What Kind of Books are Included On This List?

For the challenge, we’ve compiled a great list of reading options. Our curated recommendations strike a good balance between male and female perspectives, and between serious and light-hearted examinations of the coldest places on Earth. From Arctic novels and fiction books set in Antarctica to non-fiction accounts and memoirs, these books each paint vivid images of life at extremes. You’re also always welcome to choose your own book.

The Best Books Set in Arctic & Antarctic

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THE BEST BOOKS SET IN THE ARCTIC

THE BEST BOOKS SET IN ANTARCTICA

You are welcome to choose any book that you’d like to read for the challenge, but we hope that this list of books has given you a good starting point.

Members of our email list and Facebook group, Read with the Book Girls can log ratings for their monthly challenge reads. The logs provide us with data for the “BGG Reader Ratings” that are added to descriptions for future years. We’d love you to contribute your rating after you’ve finished your read this month.

Join the Book Voyage Reading Challenge

Photo of the book voyage reading challenge printable with text about how to join the challenge. Clicking the image takes you to the reading challenge home page with text instructions.

Book Recommendations For Other Regions of the World

Can you send me a printable list with the book titles but not descriptions?

This was a big request last year that we weren’t able to add to our plates in 2022. New for 2023, readers who support Book Girls Guide through our Buy Me a Coffee membership site will receive special monthly printable journal pages as a thank you bonus. The voluntary members (we call them our BFFs) help cover the cost of running the challenges so we can keep them free for everyone.

We’re so excited to be able to offer this fun perk this year!

The new pages will be pre-filled with every book title for the month, and include space for you to mark your interest level, make notes about whether you’ve requested the book from the library (or any other notes you’d like), and then fill in your rating. We’ll also include blank lines in case you have other books on your TBR (to be read) list that meet the prompt.

That said, you’ll always find the most updated version of our recommendations with descriptions each month at no cost on our website. We do update the list and descriptions regularly based on reader feedback. But, we know some of you wanted to print the list to take to the library or bookstore, and we hope this helps.

Love reading as much as we do?
Join us for more free content, reading challenges, & discussion in the Book Girls’ Guide Facebook Group!

Audrey Heil

Sunday 23rd of January 2022

White Heat by M.J. McGrath was a book I had on my shelves that fit the prompt.

Books Set in North America - Book Girls' Guide

Wednesday 20th of October 2021

[…] North: The Arctic and Antarctica were the first stop on the Book Voyage Challenge, and our list of Arctic books cover the northern-most parts of Canada, Greenland, and the US state of […]

Children's Books Set in Antarctica - Book Girls' Guide

Wednesday 26th of May 2021

[…] The list includes 40 books for a range of ages and is divided into sections of best Antarctic story books and children’s picture books about Antarctica, early chapter books for new readers, and middle grade Antarctica books for more advanced readers. You’ll also find a recommended age ranges for every book at the end of each book description.If you want to read a book about Antarctica along with your child, check out our list of Books Set in Antarctica for Adults! […]

Joanna Kafarowski

Tuesday 16th of February 2021

I hope you'll include my book- "The Polar Adventures of a Rich American Dame A Life of Louise Arner Boyd" (Dundurn Press, 2017) which is the first comprehensive biography of this extraordinary Arctic explorer, geographer and socialite!

Daisy

Tuesday 12th of January 2021

How do we get the map picture on this FB page?😀👏