Antarctic Journal: Four Months at the Bottom of the World

by Jennifer Owings Dewey

It is the windiest, coldest, most forbidding region on earth, and I am heading straight for it. Sketchbook in hand, an artist leaves home to spend four months in Antarctica. She hikes up glaciers, camps on deserted islands, and sees mirages of castles in the air. She sails past icebergs and humpback whales. And she fills her sketchbook with drawings of penguin chicks huddled in their nests and seals basking in the sun. Jennifer Dewey's sketches, photographs, journal entries, and letters home let you see the last great wilderness on earth through the eyes of an artist at work.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Childrens, Picture Books

64 pages, Hardcover

First published December 26, 2000

About the author

Jennifer Owings Dewey is a prolific writer and illustrator of children's books, most recently Antarctica: A Journal of Days. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Reviews

[Fran]

This was wonderful. The sketches and photographs were perfect. This made my homeschooling mama heart truly happy. I'd be interested in a more in depth and detailed account for adults.

[Charles van Buren]

Charles van Buren

TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Not a completely trustworthy journal

January 30, 2019

Format: Hardcover

My daughter had to read aloud an excerpt from this book for a school assignment . As I listened, I was struck by the following quote from the book,

"If one penguin steals a stone from another, a noisy argument erupts. Frustrated birds shriek like squabbling children, but they never come to blows."

This does not fit with my observations and study of nature. Perhaps penguins are different. But no, I remember that penguins physically fight. Perhaps Adelies penguins are unique in this regard. We went to the web. Not only do Adelies penguins fight, there are multiple videos of them fighting posted on the web.

My daughter noted that Jennifer Dewey's book is a journal of what she did and observed in Antarctica. Maybe she did not see any penguins fighting. Perhaps. However, if that is the case, the quote may not be untrue but it would then be very misleading. Untrue, misleading or just not a very good naturalist, I do not trust this author.

[Adrienne]

This Journal of time spent in Antartica observing the natural world is lovely. Made up of letters written home, a bit of history, and sketches, the book captures the quiet and pace of this cold but not empty continent.

[Sarah]

Journal entries and letters from a four month stay in Antarctic summer- November to March
Full of interesting anecdotes and information about the frozen continent.

[Kelly Chester]

What a great book

[Jennie Machines]

This was an enjoyable little book about the author's four months spent in Antarctica. I enjoyed the sketches also, but would have appreciated more photographs. Even though it is a kid's book, I learned some new things.

[Matthew]

This is a boy book, but also an excellent nonfiction text. Antarctica is a tough place in every sense. Good book for learning about it.