This is a great book, with quality research and writing and some pretty amazing photos.

This coffee-table sized book doesn't contain information you can't find elsewhere, but what makes it so special are the many, many photographs. When you read the exploits of the Frozen Continent's explorers, these photos transport you from the comfort of your sofa into the frozen wastelands.

The combination of highly readable and informative text and the great photos makes this a great book for anyone interested in exploration.

I can't believe this book is supposed to be for ages 4-8. I am a college graduate, and I enjoy reading this book and looking at the pictures. Plus...it looks great on my coffee table (when I can put it down).

I'm a teacher and I find the Eyewitness books highly educational. I like the way the concepts are presented in a form without backgrounds. This gives clear facts to the reader without over taxing the attention span. The books are highly informative, presenting difficult concepts in comprehendable chunks that stimulate interest. I have almost the whole collection for my own children and they LOVE them!

The only shortcoming of this book is that it lacks any mathematical treatment of the optics of halo production. However,this small minus (A plus for most!) is made up for with excellent halo pictures and computer simulations. This book and Greenlers "Rainbows, Halos and Glories" are a must for anyone seeking to understand these beautiful atmospheric phenomena.

This is a very nice, somewhat abridged edition of "Heart of the Antarctic." Compared with the Carroll & Graf trade edition, this does have some bits edited from the expedition preparations and the account of the Furthest South journey, but, unlike the Carroll & Graf edition, it has Professor David's account of the march to the South Magnetic Pole and an account of the Northern Party journey and so is overall a better text. The selection of pictures is decent, although there is one photo that I suspect is from the 1912 Scott expedition (of a tracked motor-sledge; the Shackleton expedition had only a car with it). The story of the British Antarctic Expedition is just as exciting as the doomed Endurance voyage, and I would highly recommend this edition to everyone interested in Shackleton and his adventures.

Gordon Fogg and Margaret Thatcher have written compelling and thorough history of research in the most remote continent on the globe - from the gung-ho expeditions of the 19th Century to the high-tech exploration of today. The authors' own personal experiences inform their scholarship and give the reader a unique view of this savage continent, and there is even a touch of adventure here and there. There is a gripping account of Margaret Thatcher's 1981 trip to Antarctica when food supplies ran perilously low; undaunted, the Iron Lady dived into the icy seas off McMurdo Sound, ignoring the 15 foot swell, to despatch a Leopard Seal with her bare hands and haul it onto the ice where she butchered it expertly and then performed an exultant dance over its dismembered remains.

Sophie Webb has applied her wonderful drawings to a travel log of her trip to the Cape Royds penguin colony on Ross Island, Antactica. Her drawings of the penguins in all their various activities are wonderfully accurate and delightful. She also recounts her experiences traveling to Antactica in a way that makes it very real -- I should know, I was there with her! The book is very well suited to kids as well as adults. However, note that she is quite truthful about some of the various fates that can await less fortunate penguins! Sophie has done a great job with this book.

Loved this book. First, the pics are outstanding. Oversided and clear, much better than what you usually find in books. Second, they tell their story very well, including the many close calls. Like the time they had to leave the bay of this small island when a sudden storm came up, and had to quickly make exact mathmatical computations of the channel or they would have been killed. The whole book gives a very good "real time" account of what it was like making the voyage -- the storms, having waves break over your head, seeing the first iceburgs in the convergence zone, being alone in the beauty of Antarctica.

Great Coffee Table Book especially for those who love the elusive Leopard Seal.