Destination--Polar Regions

Library Journal

K-Gr 3-Written in a "you are there" format, this oversized title explores the variety of Arctic life, with the usual high-quality, full-color National Geographic photographs on every page. The Arctic gets 20 pages of coverage, while the Antarctic gets only 8. A two-page afterword includes a world map showing the polar regions and emphasizing the fragility of these ecosystems. Very little information is given about any one species, so this book would not be suitable for reports, but for browsing, it's very appealing. Laurence Pringle's Antarctica (S & S, 1992) and Bruce McMillan's Summer Ice: Life along the Antarctic Peninsula (Houghton, 1995) are both illustrated with very fine photographs, and give a lot more information about this area. Still, Destination: Polar Regions is a fine addition where funds allow.-Pam Gosner, formerly at Maplewood Memorial Library, NJ Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Grupper welcomes readers to cold country with this appealing photographic essay on the animals and plants of the North Pole, and the animals living in the waters around the South Pole. With attention to details, he explains that the polar bear, wet from pulling a ringed seal out of the ocean, "rolls around, using the snow like a towel to dry himself off!" Glossy, full-page, full-color pictures show hundreds of bright pink walruses "hot and grouchy," trying to get cool, glow-in-the-dark underwater zooplankton, wild flowers in bloom, a pack of hunting arctic wolves, a family of polar bears snoozing, and grizzly bears looking for lunch. Two-thirds of the book concentrates on the Arctic, with much less space devoted to Antarctica, where Grupper discusses animals that visit the South Pole. Among the pictures are those of scientists garbed for the weather setting up scientific equipment, followed by a conclusion that compares and contrasts the two poles. This attractive volume offers a real sense of the differences between regions often thought of as identical. (map) (Picture book/nonfiction. 10-12)