Two Degrees

Lars Kristiansen, Akira’s father, is defined by his climate change denial. Although he is extremely knowledgeable about the Sierra Nevada ecosystem and cares deeply about the environment, he is convinced that nature can take care of itself.

His resolution only grows as the book progresses. Even when the sequoias start to burn, he insists that the family home will survive due to its concrete construction and the brush-clearing that he has done around the property. During the final rally, it is suggested that Lars still disagrees with his daughter, as he does not attend her speech.

Sue Tookome is introduced as a mysterious character. She is terrified by the Morris Fire but as she and Akira make their way through the woods, it becomes clear that she has an inner strength that Akira did not notice at first. Slowly, the book reveals that she is the “Polar Bear Girl” mentioned by Owen and George, who survived an attack on Halloween night in Churchill.

Sue fights through a major injury without complaint until being rescued by a friendly woman, and her fate is unknown between then and the rally. She appears in the last chapters as the final piece in the puzzle that ties all the primary characters together.

Owen Mackenzie is introduced as a good-hearted but somewhat immature goofball. Unlike most of the other characters, he is extremely outgoing, a natural public speaker due to his lifelong job as a tour guide for his parents’ company. He is aware of climate change when the novel begins, but unlike Akira and Natalie, he does not appear to see it as a particularly big issue.

Owen matures when he starts to realize that climate change means more than just melting ice and more money from polar bear tours. Feeling guilty about his thoughtlessness leading up to the first polar bear attack, he begins to focus more on the world around him, which opens his eyes to the big picture.

George Gruyere is Owen’s more serious best friend, an Indigenous boy whose family has lived in the Churchill area for centuries. He often shares stories from his grandfather about the ways people coexisted with the Arctic landscape before European settlers and modern technology arrived. Like Owen, he likes to laugh and joke, but he often gets frustrated by his friend’s carelessness and seeming inability to take his life seriously.

At first, George appears desperate to leave Churchill, but it is eventually revealed that his family might be moving, and he is only trying to make peace with his possible future elsewhere. After surviving the bear attack, he decides that he needs to do everything he can to help his family stay in their home, since Churchill is the place he knows and loves more than anywhere else.

Natalie Torres is a hurricane-obsessed seventh grader who has spent most of her Miami youth preparing for the “Big One” and creating her fantasy world Mariposa. Like Akira, she is somewhat shy but passionate about climate change, and is often frustrated when the adults around her do not take it as seriously as she does. Reflecting her Puerto Rican heritage, she often uses Spanish terms throughout the text.

Unlike the other characters, Natalie spends most of the novel completely alone, interacting with a few people who she encounters during her float through the city but with no consistent companion until she meets Patience. This meeting is an important step toward her discovering her true leadership potential, as she commits herself to helping at the food bank right after the hurricane and, after she speaks to her hero meteorologist Maria Martinez, to public speaking. Natalie becomes the primary organizer of the rally that frames the final part of the book.