The Ice Is Coming

{{Short description|1977 novel by Patricia Wrightson}} {{Use Australian English|date=December 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}} {{Infobox book| | name = The Ice is Coming | title_orig = | translator = | image = File:The_Ice_Is_Coming.jpg | caption = | author = [[Patricia Wrightson]] | cover_artist = | country = Australia | language = [[English language|English]] | series = The Book of Wirrun | genre = Children's fiction | publisher = [[Hutchinson (publisher)|Hutchinson]] | release_date = 1977 | media_type = Print | pages = 222 pp | isbn = 009129150X | preceded_by = - | followed_by = The Dark Bright Water }}

'''''The Ice is Coming''''' (1977) is a novel for children by Australian author [[Patricia Wrightson]].<ref>{{cite web |title=''The Ice is Coming'' by Patricia Wrightson |publisher=National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2225962 |access-date=16 December 2024}}</ref> It was originally published in Australia by Hutchinson.

This novel is the first in the author's ''The Book of Wirrun'' series for young readers.<ref>{{cite web|title= ''The Book of Wirrun'' series by Patricia Wrightson|publisher= Austlit|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C376061|access-date= 16 December 2024}}</ref> It was followed by ''The Dark Bright Water'' (1978) and ''Behind the Wind'' (1981).

It won the [[Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers]] in 1978.<ref name="cbca1978">{{cite web|title="CBCA Awards Judges' Report 1978" |publisher= CBCA|url=https://cbca.blob.core.windows.net/media/Default/Documents/Book%20of%20the%20Year/1978/CBCA_JudgesReport_1978.pdf|access-date= 20 April 2024}}</ref>

==Plot outline==

A city-bred Aboriginal boy, Wirrun, comes to the conclusion that the Ninya, central Australian ice-spirits, are sweeping across northern Australia. It appears their aim is to cover the whole of the Australian continent, defeating the oldest Nargun, and initiating another ice-age. Accompanied by Mimi, and aided by a talisman of the Aboriginal people, Wirrun sets off to defeat the Ninya.

==Critical reception== In ''The Canberra Times'' reviewer Malcolm Pettigrove commented that "In moving from the simpler to the more complex creatures, and in multiplying their number as she does in this book, Mrs Wrightson strengthens her mythology so as to make it virtually unassailable."<ref>{{cite web|title="An Unassailable Mythology" |work= Canberra Times|date= 8 July 1978|publisher= The Canberra Times, 8 July 1978, p13|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110895876|access-date= 16 December 2024}}</ref>

Writing about Wrightson's books for children, critic Walter McVitty noted that the book can "be read as an adventure story, in the high-fantasy tradition, about a hero's race to thwart the malevolent forces."<ref>''Innocence & Experience: Essays on Contemporary Australian Children's Writers'' by Walter McVitty, Nelson, 1981, p121</ref>

Ernest Hogan reviewed ''The Ice Is Coming'' for ''[[Different Worlds]]'' magazine and stated that "Patricia Wrightson has opened up a different world for us. Her books are a valuable introduction to the mythology of Aboriginal Australia."<ref name="dw20">{{cite journal | last = Hogan |first = Ernest | title = Books & Role-Playing | journal = [[Different Worlds]] | issue = 20 | pages =41 |date=March 1982}}</ref>

==See also== * [[1977 in Australian literature]]

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ice is Coming, the}} [[Category:Novels by Patricia Wrightson]] [[Category:1977 Australian novels]] [[Category:CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award–winning works]] [[Category:1977 children's books]] [[Category:Children's books set in Australia]]