Polar Books Collection

The Lost Seal, a children's story for 2^nd to 5^th grade students (ages 8-12), describes the first documented encounter with a live seal in the remote McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica and provides an engaging framework for conveying how different Antarctica and the Dry Valleys are from the environments with which children are familiar.  Bound by the Antarctic Conservation Act, the scientists know they cannot provide the seal with sustenance, but instead contact seal scientists who, after some thought, decide they can provide assistance so the seal can return to the sea ice. The seal gets the ride of its life back to its natural habitat, and the scientists name one of their newly found streams to commemorate their unlikely campmate. 

The book incorporates pictures from elementary students from four different countries to reflect the international collaboration of Antarctic research and the universal fascination with Antarctica by children around the world. Students from the U.S., U.K., Australia, and New Zealand created original artwork based on classroom studies of the Antarctic environment, and some pictures are included in the book.  All 413 pictures and comments are included in the book’s website, along with educational materials and footage of the seal taken during the event.

The book was published by Long Term Ecological Research’s (LTER) Schoolyard Program and Moonlight Publishing LLC in collaboration with the National Science Foundation (NSF), CU-Boulder and the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University. It is the second book in the National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported (LTER) Children’s Book Series (the first was My Water Comes from the Mountains by Tiffany Fourment).

Diane McKnight, is a professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural engineering at CU Boulder, scientist at the McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER site in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, and fellow of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) in Boulder, CO.