Whaling Season: A Year in the Life of an Arctic Whale Scientist (Scientists in the Field Series) - Hardcover

Lourie, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618777091 ISBN 13: 9780618777099

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers, 2009

Synopsis

Not all scientists live where they work, harvest their own subjects, or use information passed down from generation after generation of Inupiaq Eskimos to help learn about the bowhead whale. Arctic whale scientist Craig George is the son of children’s author Jean Craighead George, and out on the ice with the whales and the whalers in Barrow, Alaska is where this Arctic whale scientist works. He has studied them for nearly thirty years and the mysteries these creatures hold never fail to amaze him. Join Craig at the top of the world, where the days and nights are long, the people full of stories, and the bowhead whale is at the center of it all

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Lourie is an author and photographer. He has published more than twenty books for young readers. He lives with his family in Vermont.

From Booklist:

Starred review. In yet another standout title in the Scientists in the Field series, author and photographer Lourie transports young readers to Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost town in the U.S., where scientist John Craighead George has studied bowhead whales for more than 30 years. Combining exemplary color photos and simple, vivid language, the chapters detail not only George's day-to-day methodology but also his motivation: to explore "the mystery of the whales--all the things that remain unknown about the animal." George conducts his research in tandem with local Inupiaq whale hunters, and some of the books most engrossing passages show how crucial (and accurate) the hunters' knowledge, passed down through thousands of years, is to George's modern scientific inquiry. A chapter about George's author Jean Craighead George) and pictures of him playing electric guitar at an open-mike night in Barrow add personal dimensions, but what will draw young readers most are the rich descriptions of the Inupiaq community, in which George has so thoroughly rooted himself, and the riveting images of the Arctic whale scientist at work on the ice, holding a giant bowhead eyeball or reaching into the immense, bloody cavern of a whale's stomach. Maps, glossaries, and suggestions for further research round out this fascinating portrait of science and daily life at the "top of the world."

About this edition

• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0618777091
• ISBN 13: 9780618777099
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 80