From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
Snowball’s Antarctic Adventures
by Tim Ostermeyer
Ostermeyer Photography (1813 Country Brook Lane,
Allen, TX 75002), 2011. 48 pages, hardcover. $18.95.
Snowball’s Antarctic Adventures, a new children’s book from photographer Tim Ostermeyer, is about penguins. Odd-shaped birds, penguins do not lift off and fly like the swallows and swifts who are among their closest relatives. Instead they alternate between swimming astonishing distances at astonishing speeds and waddling around the ice flapping their stubby wings. Sometimes they lie on their bellies and slide on the ice.
Emperor penguins grow to four feet tall and weigh about 80 pounds. Other penguin species are much smaller, but all penguins feed mostly on shrimp krill and small fish. Ostermeyer notes that some penguins may walk 70 miles from their nesting habitat to reach unfrozen sea where they can seek food, and that Antarctic penguins–unlike the penguins of Africa and South American–are not known to live on land.
Ostermeyer’s color photos of penguins and their Antarctic home are magnificent, a treat for young readers. I am troubled, though, about the lack of discussion in Snowball’s Antarctic Adventures about the harmful effects of climate change on penguins and other Antarctic species. I even re-read the book to make sure I didn’t miss something.
Among effects on penguins already observed for a decade or more are the loss of much of the Antarctic ice shelf where penguins live, shifts of ocean currents that have moved fish and krill farther from penguin nesting habitat, and acidification as result of more carbon dioxide forming in the ocean than the natural alkalinity of sea water can buffer. Tiny crustaceans such as krill are among the species most likely to be affected by more acid oceans.
Grade school children can certainly appreciate climate change and the need for prompt action. Discussing climate change may run afoul of the politics involved in selections of school library books, but Ostermeyer appears to have underestimated children’s ability to understand climate change and take action. –Debra J. White
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