Antarctic Journal: Four Months at the Bottom of the World

Imagine if you were given a grant by the National Science Foundation to spend four months in Antarctica to sketch, take pictures, and write home to friends and family. Antarctic Journal is the record of Jennifer Owings Dewey's trek to the bottom of the world: "a planet as remote as the moon in its own way," she writes. Antarctica, home to 100 million penguins, has ice up to three miles thick, covering 98 percent of the land. The author writes her account of this icy-cold adventure at Palmer Station in an accessible journal, sprinkled with letters home and colored-pencil sketches and photographs of various landscapes and Arctic creatures. Discussions of penguin behavior are interrupted by the history of Gondwanaland and continental drift, while snippets about trying to cook krill (the tiny phytoplankton that blue whales eat) in garlic and butter add a comic and personal touch to her adventure. Descriptions of the "green flash" that happens just before sunset, red tide, and a mirage effect called the "fata morgana" (named after the fairy Morgan who built castles in the air) are sure to intrigue and inspire young explorers. This is a charming, personable introduction to a forbidding, fascinating continent. (Ages 8 to 12) --Karin Snelson

• My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Me and Uncle Romie: A Story Inspired by the Life and Art of Romare Beardon
• Riding Freedom
• The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906
• Hurricanes: Earth's Mightiest Storms
• The Life and Times of the Ant
• Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship
• My Librarian is a Camel: How Books Are Brought to Children Around the World
• The Right Dog for the Job: Ira's Path from Service Dog to Guide Dog
• Sacagawea (Carter G Woodson Award Book (Awards))