My Antarctica: True Adventures in the Land of Mummified Seals, Space Robots, and So Much More

With down-to-earth prose, Neri narrates an eye-opening trip to Antarctica in this scrapbook-like travelog. Opening remarks relate the author’s longtime dreams of exploration and unlikely path to visiting Antarctica through the National Science Foundation—as a children’s book creator writing about the experience for young audiences. Throughout, an easy, candid tone keeps the focus on self-aware observations, touching occasionally on the complex science occurring around him as well as safety training and tense moments encountered (“that time we were trapped in a helicopter over the frozen sea”). Comics-style panels, maps, and diagrams help communicate environmental extremes, while numerous lists offer a kid’s-eye view of the place, including vehicles, uniforms (depicted with paper-doll tabs), toilets, “icebergs shaped like things” (a big head, a couch), and “weird things I saw” (a rock concert). Wilkin’s wash- and pencil-style digital sketches of Neri and others (“mostly white, but I see a few folks of color like me”) mingle among dozens of photos for an on-the-go effect that keeps pages turning in this modern account of an extraordinarily extreme landscape. Extensive back matter concludes. Ages 7–10. (Mar.)