This is one of those middle grade books set up for tears: a 12-year-old main character, Talia McQuinn, whose mom has died and must accompany her dad, a whale researcher, to the freezing Arctic. In the process she must say goodbye to everything she's ever known, as her dad sells the house, all their stuff, their car, etc. so he can do this research trip.
It's quite the shock, on top of the grief, and then to make matters worse, the beluga whales don't show up where her father's expecting them. In fact, they don't show, at all. He can't study something that's not there, although it's unclear how that affects whether he gets paid, which was one of my (practical) concerns as I read.
Talia processes her grief with the Inuit landlord and woman who becomes her caretaker, while her dad's on the ice. And it turns out, this woman knew her mom and dad years before Talia was born. Talia learns about her mom in the process.
The climax comes when her dad doesn't radio in the way he should, and with global warming, and the ice thinning and moving sooner than ever, it's feared he or his research party may have been caught in the crush.
I won't spoil how it ends. Read to enjoy this brief sojourn out of the heat.
