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  • Frozen Secrets: Antarctica Revealed
  • Deborah Stevenson
Walker, Sally M.. Frozen Secrets: Antarctica Revealed. Carolrhoda, 2010. 104p. illus. with photographs ISBN 978-1-58013-607-5 $20.95 R Gr. 6-10.

For a place so inhospitable, Antarctica has a heck of a lot going on, or at least so it appears in Walker's account of the rich scientific findings coming out of the planet's southernmost continent. After a brief history of some key early Antarctic moments, the book describes projects that involve boring down through two miles of ice, diving under frozen ice sheets in sea and lake, tracking plant, animal, and microorganism life whether currently thriving or captured as relics of prehistory, and many others. Along the way, there are clear and copious explanations of glaciers and their movement and the unique weather patterns that affect the bottom of the world, plus some detailed discussion of the extra preparations necessary for performing research in this challenging climate. It's an excellent overview that manages to pack a lot of technical and scientific information into a small space, but it's sufficiently well structured conceptually and well laid out visually (photograph-overlaid backdrops, a plethora of pictures in each spread, chapters carefully divided into subheaded sections) that it all goes down pretty easily. The photographic images reveal the stunning beauty of the continent in shot after shot, but there are also illuminating [End Page 153] views of the scientists at work, and diagrams and maps round out the view. Extensive end matter includes an author's note about her research, a glossary, source notes, lists of articles, books, and websites for further reading, and an index.

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