Fossil Fuels: Buried in the Earth

Children's Literature - Barbara L. Talcroft

This "Powering Our World" series entry appears designed to bring information about energy sources to a younger audience than usual. The reader-friendly, slim, square series books cover basic information in a format using large sans serif type and a color photo for each page of text (possibly putting off older readers because any photographs of children are of primary-age students). That said, the content is accurate, and the illustrations are both appropriate and well chosen. In this book, students are introduced to the concept of nonrenewable energy and the fossil fuels oil, natural gas, and coal. (Kids may need some help with the simple explanation for the way burning coal or gas produces electricity in huge power plants.) To her credit, the author focuses on the down side of using fossil fuels and the urgency of finding alternatives. Especially touching and frighteningly timely is the close-up of a black, oil-coated duck suffering as a result of an oil spill; global warming and melting polar ice are illustrated with a sad photo of a polar bear barely balancing on a narrow piece of floating ice. Alternative fuels offer some hope—a photo of wind turbines suggests one. Although each title includes a fuel time line and a glossary, teachers will need to plan additional activities and projects, with field trips to any nearby source of energy production, like the coal-fired power plant and the wind turbines pictured. Reviewer: Barbara L. Talcroft