This was actually quite challenging - one has to really want to learn everything one can. Other reviews I'm sure cover the thoroughness, the pretty pictures, etc. - I just want to say one thing. Small font on blue-gray pictures does not make for easy reading! I read this in small batches and I still got a headache each time. If you ever design a book don't do that! ( )

Very interesting, contemporary book w/ excellent photographs. Worth a re-read. ( )

See my forthcoming review in Kirkus. ( )

This is one amazing science book! The first full page is a gorgeous image of the Earth from space... a familiar photo with a twist: looking from the bottom up, with Antarctica smack in the middle! Antarctica isn't just about frigid temperatures and penguins. Did you know that 90% of the Earth's fresh water supply is trapped in the ice covering the continent? Or that there are lakes below Antarctic glaciers that have temperatures of about 77 degrees near the bottom of the lake? How about this: they discovered a 22-foot-long carnivorous dinosaur fossil on Mount Kilpatrick, in the Transantarctic Mountains. Millions of years ago, the continent was much further north, and far warmer than today. Paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that there were trees and plants, as well as many different kinds of dinosaurs and reptiles as well as a layer of volcanic ash showing how those animals became extinct 14 million years ago. Scientists today are searching for more evidence about climate, and drilling for ice cores gives them a lot to work with. The cores contain samples of snow from various years, compacted with dust, volcanic ash and other debris, and bubbles of ancient air. They hope to learn more about the patterns of the planet's cooling and warming from these. They are also mapping and measuring the massive ice sheets and glaciers, to find out how much ice is melting, and how much is being replaced. Readers will see the scientists in heavy protective gear, working outside in brutally cold conditions, and inside the international research stations. Cooperation and mutual scientific interests are foremost here, compared to the earliest expeditions which were all about "who's getting to the South Pole first." The research, graphics and layout of this book are first-rate. Full color photographs of the scenery and wildlife, with action shots of researchers and scientists at work, using equipment from full-body dry suits for diving, to seismometers and ice core drills. The writing is excellent! Highly recommended for strong 7th grade readers and up. ( )

Antarctica is a beautiful, fascinating place and this is a beautiful book, but I was irritated when the text started with a paean to [a:Robert Falcon Scott|128981|Robert Falcon Scott|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1298808930p2/128981.jpg] and gave a mere nod to [a:Roald Amundsen|225399|Roald Amundsen|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1297112558p2/225399.jpg] 13 pages later. I wondered how a nostalgic and Anglophilic view of the continent like that serves today's reader? Thankfully, this book is jam packed with an organized hodgepodge of illustrated geologic and scientific information about Antarctica and the research taking place there. Much of it is informative and interesting, focusing on the science and geography of the area.My biggest disappointment was discovering on pg 98 that author [a:Sally M. Walker|208138|Sally M. Walker|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-F-50x66.jpg] hasn't been to Antarctica. That is the biggest shame of this book, because she is a good writer! Time, effort and budget should have been made for her to at least take a tourist's cruise trip to the continent. It would have been even better if she'd been able to do an author's stay ashore. Perhaps then some of the problems remarked on above would evaporate as her own first-hand knowledge, photos and experiences would have given this book more substance and authenticity. I bet the research would have been more thorough and better presented if she'd actually been able to make the trip! Frozen Secrets is a bit of a style over substance book throughout. It is lavishly illustrated, some might even say overproduced. GR Reviewer Cheryl comments in her review that Small font on blue-gray pictures does not make for easy reading. I agree with Cheryl, I would have appreciated a more readable book and wish more time/money were spent on travel and actual original photography than design/print production! It is difficult to tell how current some of the photos are and whether they truly document the way research is conducted in Antarctica today. I wish the many photographic illustrations were captioned and dated. The ambiguity of the photo illustrations gives the book a strange feel, like stock photos that may or may not be relevant were used for eye candy but may or many not be depicting the same time period/research effort as the surrounding text describes.Another shortcoming is that American research on the continent is presented nearly exclusively. The reader is left with the bizarre impression that what the Americans are doing there is important and that other people did stuff there a long time ago (and might be doing stuff there now too) but that it isn't important/current like the American work. This myopic bias makes it impossible for the reader to know or appreciate how many other countries are also conducting research on Antarctica, what the focus of their research is, and whether/how it differs from the American research efforts.Note to teachers and home schoolers: As supplemental reading this book is worthwhile and engaging, particularly for those interested in science, so long as it is used in conjunction with other material. Antarctica should not be introduced or taught to young people from this book alone. It is too biased and too ambiguous. ( )