One of four books in Sandra Markle's Explorers series, intended to highlight the zoological discoveries made by famous explorers in history, - the other three titles are Animals Charles Darwin Saw, Animals Marco Polo Saw and Animals Christopher Columbus Saw - this engaging picture-book sets out the story of Robert Falcon Scott's two Antarctic voyages, in the early years of the twentieth century. Concentrating on the animals involved in these trips, both those which the explorers brought with them, and those discovered in Antarctica itself - sled dogs, Mongolian ponies, emperor penguins - the book blends history and science in an interesting way.

It is that interconnection between the historical and the scientific, and the ways in which the latter influence the former, that is a distinguishing factor in Markle's series, and makes it stand out from the field of children's non-fiction picture-books. Not, perhaps, the best introduction to either Scott or emperor penguins, it is a good introduction to the idea that ostensibly "separate" areas of interest - biography, history, science - are in fact intimately related. ( )

Robert Scott's team tried over and over again to travel the furthest into Antarctica. Using dogs, ponies, and even their own manpower, they hauled supplies on sleds through biting winter winds. The new wildlife they found there, however, made the voyage worth it, but the still pressed on, trying to be the first ones to reach the South Pole. Acrylic on wood panel illustrations and notes from ripped notebook paper. Reads like a fiction book!