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Overview
The All Aboard Reading series features stories that capture beginning readers' imagination while developing their vocabulary and reading comprehension. The Picture Readers, appropriate for preschoolers, combine a very simple text with rebuses. Flash cards bound in the book help make the transition from the rebus to the printed word. As the levels progress, the stories get longer, and the print size gets smaller, preparing readers for longer books with chapters. All the books are illustrated in full color, and engage a child's curiosity with a range of topics from science to sports, history, and fantasy. Grades 1 - Grade 3.
Synopsis
What young reader can resist the allure of a volcano? The how and why of volcanoes is made perfectly clear by an easy-to-understand text that combines scientific facts with a history of volcanic eruptions. Crisp cut-paper illustrations round out this informative book.
School Library Journal
Gr 1-3Brief facts about volcanoes, presented in simple language. The narrative has a too-familiar tone and the author uses many exclamation points. An anecdote is told in the present tense: "The mountain blows its top!...Just two people get away. One is a girl. She knows a cave. She used to play there." Then readers are told, "This is a true story. It happened in 1902." Nirgiotis switches to the past tense for the more factual remainder of the book. The writing is awkward and confusing. Some volcanoes are mentioned by name, but while the story of the eruption of Paricutin in Mexico is told, its name and date are not mentioned. Brightly colored, inviting cut-paper illustrations magnify and clarify the text. Depictions of the different stages of Paricutin and before-and-after pictures of the eruption of Mount St. Helens create interest. However, the quality of the pictures does not make up for the inconsistencies in the text. A better title on Paricutin for this age group is Thomas P. Lewis's Hill of Fire (1971). Franklyn Branley's Volcanoes (1986, both HarperCollins) provides better factual coverage for a slightly older audience.Anne Parker, Milton Public Library, MA