Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Tornadoes!
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Holiday House, 2009 ISBN: 978-0823422166
Tornadoes occur when warm moist air rising into storm clouds (an updraft), and cool air descending from the clouds (a downdraft) “come together and start to spin.” A funnel shaped cloud develops inside the storm clouds, and sometimes this reaches down out of the sky until it touches the ground. As this funnel cloud spins faster and faster, it pulls more warm air into it’s heart, becoming more and more powerful and more and more destructive.
Tornadoes are categorized by how strong they are and how much damage they do. EF-O tornadoes are the weakest of their kind. With winds of between 65 to 85 miles per hour, these tornadoes can damage chimneys and trees. The strongest tornadoes, EF-5 tornadoes, are strong enough that they can lift trains off their tracks.
Though tornadoes can occur in many different places at all times of the year, there is one area in the United States where they are more common. This area in the middle section of the country is often called tornado alley, and some of the nation’s more destructive tornadoes have occurred in this region.
This excellent nonfiction title will help children to better understand why tornadoes occur, what to do if one is seen in their area, and more.
