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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J 919.8904 BRE | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Describes the life and career of the Australian explorer, Sir Doulgas Mawson, focusing on his 1912 scientific expedition to Antarctica.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5 Up-About a century ago, Australian Douglas Mawson's interest in glaciers led him to become a member of Ernest Shackleton's 1908 expedition to Antarctica. The geologist and two others made their way to the magnetic South Pole and back, gathering valuable scientific data. Mawson subsequently met with Robert Scott but decided not to join that ill-fated trip to the Pole. Instead, he organized his own Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Double-page duo-tone photos are one of several adept design details that suggest the vastness of the terrain, while the text describes how Mawson and two companions, Lt. Belgrave Ninnis and Dr. Xavier Mertz, set out to explore the ice shelf with sled dogs. Five difficult weeks out from base camp, Ninnis was lost to a crevasse along with most of the food. Over the next few days the remaining dogs were shot and butchered. Both men suffered greatly during the treacherous journey back to camp, and Mertz died. Mawson barely survived, but recovered and eventually returned home. An appendix explains that the men had inadvertently been poisoned by a surfeit of Vitamin A from the dogs' livers. A resources list includes books, interviews, and Internet sites. An enticing, attractive, and inspiring addition to adventure/exploration collections.-Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Australian explorer Douglas Mawson led an expedition to Antarctica, barely surviving a harrowing journey on which his two companions and the dogs of the title all died. The book opens slowly, but the story picks up once the group reaches Antarctica. The black-and-white photographs add to the book's immediacy. Reading list, timeline, websites. Ind. From HORN BOOK Spring 2004, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
This liberally illustrated survival tale makes reading as compelling as any of the recent accounts of Ernest Shackleton's contemporaneous ventures. Unlike Shackleton, Australian geologist Mawson mounted his ill-starred expedition for (mostly) scientific purposes. Having set up base camp at Cape Denison, soon discovered to be "the windiest place in the world," Mawson departed with a small party on sledges in November 1912. He returned alone and on foot the following February, having lost nearly all supplies, and both human companions (one, Bredeson hints, to vitamin-A poisoning from a forced diet of sled-dog livers), but surviving a 320-mile trek back. Supplemented by expedition photos of dim, windswept landscapes, and laced with horrifying details--at one point Mawson takes off his socks, and his soles peel off with them--this lesser-known, tragic episode from the golden age of Antarctic exploration won't fail to give readers both chills and thrills. (roster, time line, resource lists, index) (Nonfiction. 11-13) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Salud para todos is a Spanish-language database with health information for consumers. It contains more than 300 publications created by 50 research associations and institutes, including nonprofits, federal and state agencies, and pharmaceutical companies. At this time, access is via an English-language interface allowing users to enter search terms in either English or Spanish and receive results in Spanish. Currently a simplified Spanish-language interface is available. EBSCO will soon launch a multilngual interface with all the functionality of the English-language version. Subscribers have unlimited on-site and remote access. The Basic search mode offers keyword searching that supports Boolean and proximity operators, wildcards, and truncation. Users can refine a search by expanding it to search article text (as opposed to citations) and related words (plurals, synonyms) and also by limiting searches by categories such as Artritis (Arthritis) and Cirugia (Surgery). Advanced search can also be limited by field codes (Au, Ti, Su, etc.). The results are available as PDF or HTML files, which the user can save in a folder, print, or e-mail. Users may also set up an account for current awareness alerts. This feature will run a saved search at specified intervals and send the results to an e-mail box. Searching is easy, but the results can be mixed. The topic of heart disease in women ( mujeres y enfemidades de corazon) produced no results using either language in both Basic and Advanced modes. By adding a search for the terms within the text and related words in the Advanced search, one pamphlet from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (National Institutes of Health) on hypertension appeared. Looking for information about heart attack ( ataque al corazon) produced one article on returning to normal life after the attack. There is nothing on the basic anatomy of the heart or symptoms of heart disease, but there are several articles on diet and nutrition for cardiac patients. There was more information on pregnancy ( embarazo), with 60 hits on topics ranging from planning a pregnancy to breast feeding and breast care for mothers who bottle-feed. There are 79 articles about cancer, most on breast cancer, with several duplications. One can also find some material on ovarian, cervical, small-cell lung, and colorectal cancer. La salud para todos is useful for libraries serving Spanish speakers who need basic health information. The ability to search in both languages makes it easier for librarians who do not know Spanish to locate material, although they may not be able to evaluate what they find. Most of the articles in the database at this time come from Recursos de la salud en espanol, created by the University of Utah Health Sciences Center and from the National Institutes of Health. Both are reliable sources. As the database grows and the multilingual interface becomes available, it will have even more to offer. -- RBB Copyright 2003 Booklist
