BRAVING THE FROZEN FRONTIER

In this astute look at female grit in ``one of the most unspoiled and challenging environments on earth,'' Johnson (Investigating the Ozone Hole, 1994, etc.) recounts how, for 150 years after men first set foot on it, Antarctica remained something of a ``man's world.'' That changed in 1969, when the first female participants in the US Antarctic Program arrived on the continent. In full-color photographs and a text that offer ready glimpses of the drama involved in such basic concerns as remaining warm, readers meet Judy Coffman, helicopter pilot; Diane Stroecker, a biologist studying algae and protozoa in sea ice; Jennifer Moss, who tags seals; Fiona Hunter, who studies penguins and other seabirds; Nelia Dunbar, a volcanologist; Ellen Mosley-Thompson, an ice core paleoclimatologist; and others. Despite the -100¯F temperatures and dangerous conditions in Antarctica, readers will sense the pioneering spirit of all those attracted to this frozen white wilderness. (map, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 10+)