VOLCANOES

The Fradins cover well-traveled territory here in describing the causes of volcanoes and several of the better known eruptions—but they add an unusual slant by interviewing 20 scientists and eyewitnesses, tucking in brief comments from each. The accompanying photos aren’t all repeats either. Added to the familiar scenes of lava flows down Kilauea, an aerial view of Santorini and Mount St. Helens’s collapse are arresting shots of a car—and a town in Iceland—nearly buried in ash, massive lightning strikes in the cloud over Surtsey and an Indonesian child wearing a homemade loose-leaf paper mask after the 2006 eruption of Mount Merapi. Young readers will get a good sense of the awesome scale of a volcanic eruption, as well as a dose of basic background information. (maps, glossary, multimedia resource lists) (Nonfiction. 9-11)