Polar Dreams: Liv Arnesen and Ann Bancroft
Just down the street from where I live is a children’s bookstore called the Wild Rumpus. Built into the purple exterior of the front door is a smaller door for children to use and a posted sign warning visitors not to let the cats out. This is the door I used on Sat, Oct. the 4th when I walked in and saw, directly to my right, polar adventurer Ann Bancroft kneeling on the floor, talking to the chicken kept in their front window.
A little boy had been conscripted to hand out Bancroft-Arnesen Explore stickers at the door. I took one and continued to the stack of books titled Ann and Liv Cross Antarctica: A Dream Come True! One of these came with me to the register where I got a number for the book signing and a little hot pink sticky-note to write my dedication instructions. Then I weeded my way past the board books, teen novels, and Sophie the ferret to find a place on the floor, not too far from the projector.
Standing behind the projector, hands in pockets, was Norwegian expeditioner Liv Arnesen and Ann Bancroft’s partner in crime. Children of all ages began to settle in beside me, swaddled in autumn coats and each toting books identical to the one I clutched. The woman with pink streaks in her hair – the one who normally runs the Monday morning story hour – appeared periodically to push Pringles and chocolate bars on us. Being good guests, Bancroft and Arnesen had brought them for us.
Finally, the projector began to hum, the two were introduced, and the duo began walking us through pictures and video clips of their trek across Antarctica. They had to speak loudly above the din of caged parakeets sprinkled across the store. At one point a cat hopped up center stage to examine the arctic landscape being projected onto the large piece of white butcher paper taped to an even larger plywood board, but they were good sports about the competition.
The two took turns talking about how their dreams of Antarctica had started as children. Bancroft built igloos in the backyard of her home in St. Paul, Minnesota and just outside of Oslo, Arnesen played with a “Kontiki fleet” inspired by another famous Norwegian adventurer, Thor Heyerdahl. They both read about the expeditions of people like Roald Amundsen, Robert F. Scott, and Ernest Shackleton and they both wanted to do something like that.
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