Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 1998)

Though written (with Hannah's input) by her mother, this description of a family kayaking trip along the coastline of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is narrated by thirteen-year-old Hannah. The result is a somewhat precocious-sounding, though engaging, travelogue, one enlivened by an eye-catching design and outstanding color photographs of Alaskan wildlife and landscapes.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-7-Told from the point of view of 13-year-old Hannah, this photo-essay documents the Corral family's 200-mile kayaking/camping trip around this remote, spectacular national park. The full-color photography is lovely, portraying the grandeur of Glacier Bay. While the text is occasionally stilted ("I wonder if the rain causes the ice to snap and pop as it trickles down the glacier's cracks, called crevasses. That's what happens when I run water over a tray of ice cubes at home"), the adventure overrides any awkwardness in the writing. Hannah, her parents, and her five-year-old brother take notice of the abundant flora and fauna (including whales, seals, bears and birds) in both the text and photographs. Like the Corrals's My Denali (Alaska Northwest, 1995), A Child's Glacier Bay is a challenge to "couch potato" families to get out and experience nature firsthand. But the book is also "cool" reading about Alaska on a hot summer's day.-Mollie Bynum, formerly at Chester Valley Elementary School, Anchorage, AK

ALA Booklist (Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 1998)

This photo-essay documents the Corral family's camping adventure in the marine park of Glacier Bay in Alaska. The three-week kayaking trip takes the family along the Alaskan coastline, with its desolate, wildly beautiful landscape and plant and animal life. Up close, the family sees whales, seals, and awe-inspiring icebergs. Roy Corral's photos are spectacular, capturing the vast, glacial beauty, as well as documenting the everyday details of roughing it in the frigid terrain. Readers learn how the family sleeps, cooks, sets up camp, and travels; the book also explains the terms and facts of scientific and biological objects and phenomena. Told conversationally from the 13-year-old daughter's point of view, the narrative takes readers right along with the family. An accessible, basic introduction to the wonders of Alaska and its ever-changing landscape (and a model example of siblings and family members working together and getting along in veritable isolation) as viewed and experienced by a real family on a challenging but rewarding expedition. (Reviewed July 1998)