Super Storms

Simon, Seymour. 2002. Super Storms. New York: SeaStar Books. ISBN 1587171376

Brief Plot Summary:  

This concise, informative book gives young readers an overview of weather terms, including descriptions of thunder, lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, and hail.  It explains in simple terms how hurricanes and tornadoes are formed and provides examples of how they have impacted the United States in recent history. 

Critical Analysis:

 

This informative book is written very straightforward and gives a factual, overview about storms.  It is basic enough that the accuracy of the information is easily verifiable.  Fortunately for readers, Seymour Simon is an expert on science.  A former teacher, he has been honored with numerous awards for his work, including the Washington Post/Children’s Book Guild Award for Non-fiction, the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Forum on Children’s Science Books.

The book is organized in a logical sequence, beginning with the birth of a thunderstorm and ending with the effects of storms, with examples of historical weather events such as Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and a major typhoon in Bangladesh in 1991.  Young readers will easily absorb the information as they learn how storms can spawn thunder, lightning, tornadoes, and hail.

The book is filled with photographs of extreme weather that complement the text, including photos of beautiful lightning storms and impressive tornadoes.  The writing style is clear and concise, with few extra words or adjectives (“Blizzards are huge snowstorms” and “Thunderstorms are heavy rain showers”).

Awards won:  

Seymour Simon has been given the following awards related to his science books:

Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Forum on Children’s Science Books

American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Lifetime Achievement Award

Hope S. Dean Memorial Award from the Boston Public Library

The Washington Post/Children’s Book Guild Award for Non-fiction

Jeremiah Ludington Award

Review Excerpts: 

Library Talk

(from a review of several science books by Seymour Simon)

Glorious illustrations of creatures and natural phenomena leap off the pages of these beginning science titles from one of the venerable writers of children's science books. Each double-page spread is one large illustration, with text set off in a colored rectangle coordinated with the color of the page. Simon has chosen topics compelling to young readers and useful in curricular areas like weather, planets and physical science. Text is set in a large typeface easy for young children to follow, with one to four sentences a page. The publisher has labeled the books by levels. A quick check with Microsoft Word's readability checker found actual reading levels to range from 2.1 for Wild Bears to 5.4 for Danger! Earthquakes. Best to go with topic interest and have older readers help with vocabulary. Included with each title is a loose page of four perforated "collectible cards" nice for home purchase but not needed for school. Young science lovers will keep these books off your shelves. Recommended.

Fredrick, Kathy. 2002. "See More Readers." Library Talk 15, no. 3: 57. Library & Information Science Source, EBSCOhost (accessed July 15, 2013).

Horn Books

In two books in this series for beginning readers, clear, color photos and maps show the range and effects of these natural phenomena. The easy-to-read, informative text extends the illustrations and exhibits knowledge of not only the subject but also the audience. Except for a smaller trim size, the effective page design is similar to Simon's picture books. The paperback editions include removable fact cards. [Review covers these See More Reader titles: [cf2]Danger! Earthquakes[cf1] and [cf2]Super Storms.[cf1]] Copyright 2002 Horn Book Guide Reviews

2002. Horn Book Guide Reviews.  Accessed on July 15, 2003 from Georgetown Public Library https://georgetown.biblionix.com/atoz/catalog/?search=super%20storm%20seymour%20simon

Connections:

Related books:

National Geographic Readers:  Storms

Tornadoes! By Gail Gibbons

Storms by Sean Connolly

Other books by Seymour Simon:

Danger! Earthquakes

Global Warming

Planets Around the Sun

Mars

Enrichment Activities:

I think one great, purposeful enrichment activity would be to also teach kids about procedures to follow in case of a storm.  In the library setting, this would include where to go in case of a tornado.  Students could also learn about what things they might need in their home in case of a hurricane, such as water, flashlights, batteries, and canned foods.

I also found several other great activities at the following website:

http://in2books.epals.com/Content/info.aspx?caid=i2bclass08.books.about&isbn=1587171376

 

Some of my favorites include a crossword puzzle and questions to ask students to have them think about what they learned in the book, including the following questions:

1.    What causes thunderstorms to spawn tornadoes?

2.    What did you learn about storms in the book?

3.    What interested you the most in the book?