BLACK WHITENESS

Burleigh (Hoops, p. 1386, etc.) retells Admiral Richard Byrd's successful six-month, one-man Antarctic encampment in a picture book aimed at an older audience. In 1934, Byrd was determined to learn how an individual could withstand the harshness—and loneliness—of the Antarctic night. Burleigh's spare prose eloquently captures the spartan surroundings in which Byrd conducted daily meteorological studies with only a flashlight, a lantern, and a small gas lamp against constant darkness and temperatures of -60¯F. Passages lifted from Byrd's daily journal are a testament to his convictions, and Krudop's illustrations starkly reflect the subtle play of light against the dark, icy landscape. While Byrd ultimately survived an illness to welcome a relief crew, his story is severe, often depressing, and always riveting. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-11)