Another excellent addition to the "Scientists in the Field" series. There are lots of volcano books for kids at the library, but I'd venture to say this is the best (especially for ages 9 to 12).

The true danger of volcanoes has never been so palpable on the page. Author Elizabeth Rusch takes readers all over the globe to visit some of the world's most explosive volcanoes and we get to meet the people living at their doorsteps, along with the scientists whose main priority is keeping folks out of harm's way. It's trickier than it sounds. Evacuating an area around an active volcano means hugely disrupting people's lives. What if you tell them to flee and you're wrong? What if you don't tell them to flee and they die?

This book has local interest for Washington state, too. Obviously, we are in the Ring of Fire and Mt. St. Helens lurks. But did you know that the VDAP (Volcano Disaster Assistance Program) has offices in Vancouver, Washington, at the Cascades Volcano Observatory? (You can check our volcano alert level here: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/cvo/.)

Wonderfully written, with awesome photography, and packed with information, I imagine this will inspire some future vulcanologists. ( )

551.21

Just an excellent informational book about both volcanoes and the volcanologists who study them. Very scientific yet not hard to digest. It conveys very well the difficulty of predicting an eruption, what kind of eruption, and the toll of ordering evacuations.
Outstanding. ( )

I like enjoyed reading this book! This book has multiple different text features that make this book understandable and readable for young children. There are pictures, diagrams, index, table of contents, maps, and subheading. Each of these text features makes reading the informational text easy to understand and comprehend. There is a detailed map locating where a volcano is in Columbia as well as photographs displaying what is looks like when the volcano erupts. My favorite part about the text is how is also shows the aftermath of the volcanos and the effects it leave on the community. This gives it a real life aspects and makes it relatable to the readers. The main idea in the text is to explain what volcanoes are, how volcanoes work, where they are located and the effects of them.

This is geared towards a bit older students as it talks more specific about what a volcano can do and how. It talks about how twenty-three thousand people died in the 1985 eruption of Colombia’s Nevado del Ruiz, and that today, more than one billion people worldwide live in volcanic danger zones. It really makes you think as to why people chose to do this. Genre, informational, as it tells about what volcanoes have done and can do. Media ( )