Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Volcano!
Nonfiction
For ages 8 to 12
Kids Can Press, 2001 ISBN: 978-1550749663
It is hard to imagine a more terrifying or awesome sight than that of an erupting volcano. Huge plumes of smoke and ash fill the sky, lava flows down the hillside, and sometimes a deadly pyroclastic flows billows its way down the side of the mountain killing every living thing in its path. Clearly volcanoes are a force to be reckoned with and though we know a good deal about them, we still have not found a way to accurately predict when a volcano is going to blow. Because of this many people are killed by volcanoes including the researchers who are trying to study and learn about them.
In this excellent book children can read all about how volcanoes are born, what is happening when they erupt, how people are affected by volcanoes, and how we study them. Readers can also look at the photographs and read about some of the most famous eruptions that the world has experienced in the last fifty years or so including the one that shook Mount St. Helens in 1980, some of the volcanoes in on the islands of Hawaii, and the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia when caused a huge mudslide and which killed about 25,000 people.
The author also includes several "You Try It" projects which a child can do and which show the reader how volcanoes work and why they are so destructive.
