CAN IT REALLY RAIN FROGS?

In this chatty entry in the Spencer Christian's World of Wonders series, the Good Morning America personality puts together anecdotes, odd facts, brief experiments, and information on weather phenomena. Under discussion are basic weather patterns, clouds, rain, snow, hail, thunder, lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, weather instruments, and related folklore. Quirky facts from around the world are presented without sources, and the experiments are not always well-conceived: For a rain gauge made from an empty olive jar (with a ruler to mark off inches), readers are told to gather rain in a coffee can (to pour into the gauge), but not that the size of the can will influence readings. In another experiment, readers are instructed to put a flameproof glass cake pan filled with water on a stove top (the illustration shows a gas burner) over low heat to show that water moves from cool to warm areas; those pans are not always intended to sit directly on gas flames, and heating only one area may cause cracking. This in an interesting and readable book, but readers may have to go to other sources for safer activities, and to gain clearer distinctions between facts and folklore. (b&w photos, illustrations, maps, charts, diagrams, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)