DK Adventures: In the Shadow of the Volcano Paperback – June 16, 2014

My daughter Magda is quite obsessed with volcanoes, so it was no surprise that she loved this book. In addition to giving lots of volcano facts and photos, it tells the fictional story of a volcanologist living near Pompeii with her young son. They inevitably have to escape the eruption (on a Vespa scooter, no less!), saving the reticent mayor in the process. Magda was fascinated, and probably a little terrified. We don't live anywhere near any volcanic activity (at all) but she would probably count it as among her top ten fears. It's sort of like people who don't live anywhere near the ocean being afraid of sharks but watching every second of Shark Week with rapt attention. The girl loves volcanoes...from a distance.I liked the interesting format of this book. It's informative and we really did learn a lot (it's great to hear a four-year-old correctly pronounce words like 'volcanologist') but it also had the storybook aspect. That was interesting. Although Magda was probably quite worried about fictional Carlo and his scientist mom, the narrative really held her attention. It was similar to one of her favourite books about Mount Vesuvius, The Buried City of Pompeii, by Shelley Tanaka.

Just bought this book for our Year 3 topic on earthquakes and volcanoes. It is fabulous. It follows a contemporary story of a family living on the hills of Mount Vesuvius. The story is interspersed with interesting facts and useful information about a whole range of things including: how volcanoes form, evacuation plans, volcanologist job description, information about Pompeii, types of volcanic rocks, map of key volcanoes around the world, timeline of vesuvius’ key eruptions etc. The range of text types included is astounding and I can imagine using this text to inspire writing from the children. Just brilliant! Thank you DK. I’ll be looking out for similar books in the range.