Dear Daniel: Greetings from Antarctica

by Sara Wheeler

Antarctica is the coldest, most alien place on Earth. The only animals that can survive there are penguins, seals, seabirds and whales, and the only humans to be found are visiting research scientists. Through letters to her godson, Daniel, and her own photographs, Sara Wheeler tells the story of her experiences at the bottom of the world. Travel writer Sara Wheeler spent seven months in Antarctica. She is the author of the best selling Terra Incognita , a book about her experiences on the ice.

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Sara Wheeler was brought up in Bristol and studied Classics and Modern Languages at Brasenose College, University of Oxford. After writing about her travels on the Greek island of Euboea and in Chile, she was accepted by the US National Science Foundation as their first female writer-in-residence at the South Pole, and spent seven months in Antarctica.

In her resultant book Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica, she mentioned sleeping in the captain’s bunk in Scott's Hut. Whilst in Antarctica she read The Worst Journey in the World, an account of the Terra Nova Expedition, and she later wrote a biography of its author Apsley Cherry-Garrard.

In 1999 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. From 2005 to 2009 she served as Trustee of the London Library.

She was frequently abroad for two years, travelled to Russia, Alaska, Greenland, Canada and North Norway to write her book The Magnetic North: Travels in the Arctic. A journalist at the Daily Telegraph in the UK called it a "snowstorm of historical, geographical and anthropological facts".

In a 2012 BBC Radio 4 series: To Strive and Seek, she told the personal stories of five various members of the Terra Nova Expedition.

O My America!: Second Acts in a New World records the lives of women who travelled to America in the first half of the 19th Century: Fanny Trollope, Fanny Kemble, Harriet Martineau, Rebecca Burlend, Isabella Bird, and Catherine Hubback, and the author's travels in pursuit of them.

Reviews

[Patrick Gralton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I happened across this book and thing it would be very good for cross curricular links and information retrieval tasks in KS2. It is very informative and interesting and gives a new perspective on how some people live and how Earth is such a diverse place. Written as a series of letters to her Godson this book will entertain and inform children.

[Emma Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read by a travel writer for someone with no idea about the Antartica.In diary format as a letter from author to her godson,it gives a letter a double page and associated pictures to illustrate her news during her seven month stay .Covers all things you would want to know about ice,sledges,animal life( penguins and seals) ,scientific research ,base camp,field camp ,clothing and other info that only someone who has experienced the place could describe about everyday survival .

[Dianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

My four-year-old son was completely fascinated by this book. On each spread is a letter from a woman who is visiting Antarctica. There are plenty of pictures with descriptions and information, too, so if my son was curious about something, I could read him the caption. This format is perfect for younger children, but it would work for older children as well.

[AS · Rating 4 out of 5]

- The first book representing Antarctica in my list “Seven Continents of Books 2021”

I feel like this book and her full-length adult book Terra Incognita should be kind of a package deal : ) I definitely recognized places and situations she talks about in Terra Incognita, and it’s wonderful to have photos of her adventures, since that book had only one, of her at the South Pole.
This book is kid-friendly but also a worthwhile read for adults, since there is good information.

I do feel like, even though it's for kids, it's pretty short and could use more detail and more text. Many of the letters seem like just quick sound bites.