80 p. Scholastic Inc., June, 2013. 9780545505161. (Finished copy courtesy of publisher.)
So far, I've been pleased with this new series from Scholastic and I had high hopes for this one since the sixth grade science teacher does a huge unit on weather each year. The series is dense with spectacular photos, and the photos certainly are the stars in this particular volume.
This one seems aimed at a slightly lower age than the two I have already read. It starts off with a nice explanation of what weather is and moves on to explain the layers of the Earth's atmosphere, then moves on to discuss heat and wind. The next pages consist of an impressive double-page spread of the aurora borealis over Norway, then it's back to wind again. Huh? Why not place the aurora borealis a few pages later with the section on light tricks? The explanation of the various types of clouds was minimal. Then, it's on to precipitation, thunderstorms and lightning, where the factoids, while interesting, seem random and not useful to report writers looking for in-depth information. Still, I know browsers will eat this one up. If there's money in the budget, your browsers will thank you.
As I read some of the text boxes, such as the largest snowflake ever recorded being 15 inches wide in 1877, I wondered, says who, and flipped to the back for a list of sources. Alas, there's a page crammed with picture sources, a glossary and an index, but no sources or suggested further reading.
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