Antarctica : Charts

Children's Literature - Children's Literature

One would think that a place as desolate and remote as Antarctica would have no bearing on the rest of the world. You leave it alone and it will leave you alone. Wrong. This, the fifth largest continent, has an enormous significance on the earth as we know it. For one thing, scientists pull up cores of ice from deep down to tell what the weather was like years ago, and maybe predict possible changes in the future through CO2 bubbles that were caught in the ice. Studying the fish that survive there helps us understand what is required to live in the extreme cold. Readers will also learn about the dangers of working in Antarctica where the air can freeze skin in less than a minute. With glaciers and icebergs many miles in width (some in the hundreds), travel can be very dangerous. Much is shared in this book about a little-known location and teachers should share it with students everywhere. I know I will. This book is part of the "Ends of the Earth" series. 1997, Heinemann Library, Ages 10 up, $25.65. Reviewer: Scott S. Floyd

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6Double-page spreads describe various aspects of these very different habitats. In Antarctica, interesting comparisons are often used, e.g., 99.6% of the continent is covered by ice, yet the snowfall there is comparable to the rainfall received in the Sahara Desert. A wealth of information about this unique environment is introduced in chapters that also describe scientific communities and living conditions. An excellent map indicates locations of ice shelves, mountains, research stations, and the oceans surrounding the frozen land, and is accompanied by an interesting cross-section drawing that shows the height of ice covering the land mass. The captions for the full-color photographs are often difficult to read (particularly when white text is used against white snow). Descriptions are more straightforward in Amazonia. Photographs, diagrams, drawings, and text boxes highlight features of this habitat, the dwellings of some of the Amazon Indians, and their slash-and-burn system of agriculture. Maps indicate the countries included in the Amazon basin, areas in which part of the rain forest has disappeared, settlement patterns of the earliest indigenous peoples, and the Amazon River itself. Hardships endured by modern researchers and harrowing details of early expeditions are vividly illustrated and described, often using journal entries. More detailed photographs and descriptions of the life on the Antarctic Peninsula can be found in Bruce McMillan's Summer Ice (Houghton, 1995). The Cousteau Society's An Adventure in the Amazon (S & S, 1992) utilizes compelling photographs to bring readers into the lives of the indigenous peoples and the animals in this area.Frances E. Millhouser, Chantilly Regional Library, VA