Geraldine McCaughrean

Taken to Antarctica by the man she thinks of as her uncle for what she believes to be a vacation, Symone--a troubled fourteen year old--discovers that he is dangerously obsessed with seeking Symme's Hole, an opening that supposedly leads into the center of a hollow Earth.

What does the future hold in store? Is it ever a good idea even to ask? There was a time once when the Three Fates sat in the corner of the young world and knitted like grandmothers for each newborn infant. They wove and worked and patterned each day of a man's life, from the first stitch to the last casting off. In those days, there were oracles, too, fortune-tellers so sharp-eyed that they could see into the future, so unkind that they were prepared...

A little angel and a young shepherd boy help each other reach Bethlehem to see the Christ Child.