Walter Dean Myers presents a thrilling record of Antarctica and the expedition parties that uncovered the frozen continent.
Walter Dean Myers brings the dramatic race to the South Pole to lie in ANTARCTICA, tracking the explorers of the South Pole and the dangers they encountered there, as well as their contributions to modern science. He describes the extreme climate conditions in Antarctica, the wildlife, the whaling and merchant sailing industries that took root there, and the various exploration parties, including James Cook, Richard Byrd, and Ernest Shackleton. Myers depicts the heroism and adventure of the expeditions using photos, maps, and illustrations to complement the text.
Walter Dean Myers was born on August 12, 1937 in Martinsburg, West Virginia but moved to Harlem with his foster parents at age three. He was brought up and went to public school there. He attended Stuyvesant High School until the age of seventeen when he joined the army.
After serving four years in the army, he worked at various jobs and earned a BA from Empire State College. He wrote full time after 1977.
Walter wrote from childhood, first finding success in 1969 when he won the Council on Interracial Books for Children contest, which resulted in the publication of his first book for children, Where Does the Day Go?, by Parent's Magazine Press. He published over seventy books for children and young adults. He received many awards for his work in this field including the Coretta Scott King Award, five times. Two of his books were awarded Newbery Honors. He was awarded the Margaret A. Edwards Award and the Virginia Hamilton Award. For one of his books, Monster, he received the first Michael Printz Award for Young Adult literature awarded by the American Library Association. Monster and Autobiography of My Dead Brother were selected as National Book Award Finalists.
In addition to the publication of his books, Walter contributed to educational and literary publications. He visited schools to speak to children, teachers, librarians, and parents. For three years he led a writing workshop for children in a school in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Walter Dean Myers was married, had three grown children and lived in Jersey City, New Jersey. He died on July 1, 2014, following a brief illness. He was 76 years old.
Look, I had to read this for a library challenge. If you want to learn more about the journeys to and through Antartica, check it out. It covers the basics, gives photos, will give you an idea of how the continent was discovered. It's also depressing as hell because traversing through Antartica seems depressing as hell. But your mileage may vary.
Myers discusses how the Antarctic region became of interest to the world, from economic and scientific standpoints, and the expeditions that shaped our understanding of Antarctica. The expeditions of James Cook, Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott, and Richard Byrd are among those described. The details of the journeys (including the deaths of Scott and his fellow explorers), the region, and the developing technology used to further exploration were highly interesting. This is a great introduction to Antarctica and leaves me eager to read more on the topic.
I came across this text while I was completing my author study on Walter Dean Myers. My students currently study Shackleton and his polar exploration this year and I think this text would be a great cross-curricular non-fiction supplement to our Language Arts curriculum. I'm also looking to use authentic texts in my classroom and knowing Walter Dean Myers and his writing style, I'm sure this is a great find!
A really excellent book for 10-14 year olds about the exploration of the Antarctic, with a chapter each to the expeditions between the late 1700s up to the establishment of McMurdo and other (semi) permanent research stations. The only bummer was the lack of maps...
Wow. I asked my wife if we could wrangle our goals around and spend a year a as a family at the research station down near the South Pole. The original explorers of the 5 largest continent were amazing men. I was shocked that they made it as far as they did with so few catastrophes.