Friday, May 6, 2011

Natural Disasters by Claire Watts


Natural Disasters. by Claire Watts. DK Publishing, Inc., 2006. 72 pages.
Review/Personal thoughts:  Natural Disasters is part of an eyewitness books series. This book focuses on the Earths’s naturally occurring disasters like tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and tornadoes. I am a visual person and this book captured my attention immediately with full color photographs on every page. Earth gives humans sustenance, but it “can also generate catastrophic disasters that kill people, damage the environment, destroy property and disrupt normal life.”  Descriptions of the Earth’s molten core and tectonic plates provide a foundation for the understanding of the instability that can cause disasters. Imagine a 100 foot high wall of water moving at 600 miles per hour towards your home.  This is the power of a tsunami. Incredible photos of tsunami damage bring the event to life. One tsunami killed an estimated 100,000 people in just 15 minutes! Earthquakes are unpredictable and can cause death and destruction as wel,l as the Earth’s surface shakes and levels man made structures. When the Earth’s molten core breaks through its crust. the extreme power of a volcano is released. “Lava, ash rocks and superheated gases” unleash a terrifying assault on the surrounding land.  Not to be outdone, hurricanes are huge storms that can measure 500 miles wide, have winds over 135 miles per hour and cause devastation and death. The book also has information on floods, wildfires, droughts and infectious diseases.  This is another great non-fiction selection for tweens that can be informative and entertaining.  


Genre: Non-Fiction
Reading Level: 8.6 Interest level: Ages 9 to 13.

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