Horn Book (Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)

Wally's science project proves that dinosaurs are alive. Unfortunately, the D.I.A. (Dinosaur Intelligence Agency) intercepts it to protect "the dinosaur way of life." Groan-inducing puns, silly facts, and vibrant illustrations showcase a parallel world where dinosaurs eat, dress, and behave the same as their human counterparts.

School Library Journal (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2006)

Gr 6-9 This slim volume packs a lot into its pages. The text is dense and informative, covering history, local life, science, society, the subantarctic, and the future. Tulloch discusses environmental problems and explains how human waste is handled. Other voices, such as a doctors and geologists, are quoted in sidebars. The book stresses the importance of protecting Antarctica. Photos vary in quality and many are postage-stamp size. They are crammed together, with sometimes as many as 10 images on a single page. They are all well captioned, but the effect is cluttered. The attractive watercolor illustrations are a bit larger. This is an eye-catching book packed with gems for browsing, and the presentation makes it suitable for reports. Amelia Jenkins, Juneau Public Library, AK

Voice of Youth Advocates

"This book can be the beginning of your Antarctic journey," writes Tulloch in the introduction to her splendid tribute to the land that ancient Greeks imagined and named Antarkikos. Tulloch writes out of her experiences as a voyager on an Antarctic resupply ship to illuminate the continent's geologic history, its flora and fauna, and its importance to the global ecosystem. She also addresses the early and continuing human explorations and their impact on the region asw ell as the area's rich potential and possible future problems. The writing is clear, and the science is comprehensible without the slightest sense of talking down to youthful readers. Further reading suggestions, including Web sites, and a wealth of visual aides accompanies the text. NASA's imagery-Antarctica as seen from space and its sea surface elevation survey map-takes the breath away. But so does the land photography-the Mawson ice scape, the crevasses, the icebergs, the albatross chick, and the isolated expeditioners standing in a line to greet an arriving ship. The scope and diversity of Tulloch's visuals, including her own sketches and maps, is comprehensive. The book projects Tulloch's awe of this "highest, driest, windiest, coldest, cleanest, most isolated . . . continent on Earth," but it is not without its sense of fun. She includes Antarctic slang, for example, "snotsicles" and "toast," the mental state induced by long periods "on the ice." Librarians acquiring this book, a must-have for any scientific collection, can be assured that it will contribute to some reader's decision to visit or work in Antarctica.-Mary E. Heslin.