Cover

About the book/blurb

SNOW

Ondine Sherman

Sometimes you have to leave everything behind to find yourself.

Sky travels to Alaska to meet her father for the first time.Shehas longed to know him, and now finally has that chance.

Far away from her friends back in Australia, she connects with Jaxon, a local boy struggling with his own problems. In a cold, vast and beautiful place, they are isolated except for the wild animals who live there.

But Sky’s dad has a secret that threatens everything she holds dear. Will she have to choose between family and her love of animals?

This is a heart-warming story in the coldest of places.

Title Page

ONDINE SHERMAN

Epigraph

‘All good things are wild and free.’

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Dedication

For Shelley,
a kindred spirit who loved
all sentient beings.

Also by Ondine Sherman

Also by Ondine Sherman

Sky

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

‘More tea, miss?’ the flight attendant asks.

I remove my earbuds as Lorde hits a high note and hold out my cup. The attendant balances the tray over Melody’s lap as she pours the boiling water.

‘Ma’am?’

‘I think she’s still asleep,’ I say. Melody took a herbal supplement a few hours ago when we left Los Angeles and is still snuggled under a blanket, red curls spilling like a dozen octopuses. The sight of Melody sleeping would usually fill me with affection, and when I was a kid I’d even rest my head against hers. But now?

I imagine knocking the tea over her knees.

Sipping the hot tea, I turn to a fresh page of my journal and contemplate all the crazy things that have happened to me over the last six months:

1. My mum died and my world burst into flames.

Another sip of tea washes down the lump in my throat.

2. I moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere.

3. My friend/most popular girl in class sent me on a one-way trip to social Siberia and

No, I cross it out. That should come after:

3. I stole a baby chicken from

I put down my pen. Can’t concentrate. I check my watch, look out the small plastic aeroplane window, rub my neck and check my watch again. Two hours to go. I wonder what Oliver’s doing right now as I fiddle with my necklace, the one with the crescent moon that my mum left me. I wore it to the end-of-year school gala only a few weeks ago—the night Oliver and I became boyfriend and girlfriend.

I imagine Oliver in his mum’s store unpacking boxes, muscles flexing, and my skin tingles. Those biceps, yikes. The cheesy rom-com I just finished reminded me of the eighties films I used to watch with Mum, but also of how cute my boyfriend is, and our first kiss.