The Ice House by Monica Sherwood

Louisa feels trapped. There’s a global temperature drop, and her family’s been snowed into their apartment building for months. Her parents are overwhelmed. Her little brother is driving her up the wall. She’s barely seen her friends, so they’re growing apart. But her neighbor and former friend, Luke, has been around a lot after his dad’s scary ice-related accident. The universe is out of whack, and all she wants is for “normal” to return—fast.

Everything changes when Louisa and Luke build an ice house as a getaway from their stressed-out families. But when they discover a mystifying window to what could lie ahead, it sets them on an impossible mission to restore the world to its rightful order.

Full of heart and sparkling with a touch of magic, this story of emerging from a certain kind of quarantine resonates profoundly during these extraordinary times.

Monica Sherwood grew up on Long Island and currently lives in New York City. She is a former elementary school teacher with a master’s degree in Childhood and Special Education from Hunter College and currently works in educational technology designing digital products for teachers and kids. The Ice House is her debut novel.