Hurricanes

This book was purchased as a gift for my 8-year-old son who is very interested in natural disasters. I read it aloud to him and to my 6-year-old daughter, both of whom enjoyed it. The text is very thorough in explaining how hurricanes develop, the categories of hurricanes, how they are predicted, and how to be safe when a hurricane threatens. Hurricane terms are defined in text, but other difficult words that are less central to the narrative are defined in the glossary in the back (e.g. moorings). It is this more challenging vocabulary that makes this book a read-aloud in the lower elementary years, so that an adult can explain challenging vocabulary. A child would probably need at least a 4th grade reading level to have reasonable understanding on their own. My son reads on a 5th grade level and can understand most of it by himself, except for the odd word. My daughter reads on a 2nd grade level and would be lost by herself. I homeschool and think it's critical to be reading aloud a lot to children in this age range, so it's not a big deal to me. But, this wouldn't be a good book to buy and expect to just hand over to the average 4 to 8-year-old it's recommended for. Each two page spread is half photograph. In general the photos were very interesting and illustrated the power of a hurricane, but one or two of them were somewhat blurred as if the picture had been blown up too big. I'm sure they could have found other pictures that were sharp and detailed (one depicted aftermath, not hurricane itself), but it's not that big a deal. The kids probably won't even notice. I would definitely recommend this book on hurricanes. It's extremely thorough and educational for adults as well as children. I have also read the author's book on Tornadoes, which was good as well, so I'd recommend his books in general. As a side note, this book was updated in 2007 and does mention Hurricane Katrina.

There are tons of pictures and alot of information and it's suitable for some younger children

I bought this book for my son who has taken an interest in hurricanes and he loved it. He enjoys looking at the pictures and has learned alot about hurricanes.