PICTURETHIS

FROZEN PLANET II BY MARK BROWNLOW AND ELIZABETH WHITE

(BBC Books £28, 312pp)

WHEN a female emperor penguin lays an egg, she has to carefully pass it to her male partner without it touching the ground or the embryo will freeze in the minus 40c Antarctic temperatures. He then shelters it in a brood pouch while she heads to the ocean to feed for two months. Her partner joins a huddle of other dads who keep the eggs warm and patiently wait for them to hatch. This informative book celebrates the diverse world of ice and snow — which amazingly covers one-fifth of the planet — from frosty slopes in Mount Kenya to Amur leopards in the Russian forest.