Volcanoes and Earthquakes

Review to come in the beginning of September to blog and Goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

OMG, I am absolutely dancing around that I got accepted for this book. I wish I could share this book with my 8-10 year old self, read it together. Back then I was a giant fan of books/stuff about volcanoes. These days I am still hyped whenever I see a book or series about volcanoes, but I don't think I can ever top the hype from when I was that age. OK, I may not have gotten that far given I am Dutch and my English when I was 8-10 was verrrrrrrrrrryyyyy limited as in a few words. But I am sure someone could have translated the book for me. Or I could have grabbed a dictionary. Or anything.

So here we are, following Ava and George as they go on a journey to exploring the world of volcanoes. I just loved the fact that detective skills are mentioned. Another thing I love, detectives. Eep!
It seems that Ava is the volcano expert and George is the one for earthquakes. Though later on they combine their forces and together tell us all about volcanoes. While on my ecopy the pages don't connect I am guessing (given how seamlessly the pages fit together if I flip) that they will in the real copy and then it becomes even more fun to read.

I didn't really read anything new, but I still had plenty of fun seeing how Ava and George explained the workings of earthquakes and volcanoes to everyone. It is very clear and easily to follow, and it is fun. I have read a few volcano books for kids that was just very dry and textbooky, but this one is playful and really grabs the reader by the hand to show them all the fun and wonderful things.

I was already wondering when we would see some more about earthquakes but that happens about 16 pages in the book! We learn about how earthquakes work, we read about famous (or would that be infamous) earthquakes, we also get information on tsunamis (which often happen after an earthquake).

The book is also filled with plenty of fun experiments to show how things happen. They aren't too hard to do so kids can experiment on their own, maybe only need to ask their parents to get some things. Later on there is also a quiz to see how much you remember from the book and what you learned. And at the end there is a glossary so you can check the words you learned again.

Oh, and tip. For the cookie at the first experiment? Maybe use tea or milk instead of just plain water. Afterwards you can just eat the cookie. Believe me cookie + normal water doesn't make it yummy.

The illustrations are just fabulous, it was definitely the second thing that made me press that request button very fast. It is really cute, fun, playful. Plus detailed.

All in all, I definitely want more Geo Detectives and I hope that these books will get translated to Dutch so my libraries can stock them. I am sure kids will absolutely devour these books and I would recommend this book to everyone.

I requested this book from Netgalley because my seven year old daughter is a huge fan of nature. I knew from the cover that this would be a fun read and I wasn't wrong! It actually taught my old self a few facts as well about the force of volcanoes and earthquakes. Although both are terrifying to me, they're absolutely fascinating and with the way the world is going in terms of global warming it's nice to see books like this to understand how they work, why they work, and the outcome.

The illustrations are absolutely adorable as well.

All in all this was a great read and it's going on my daughter's Christmas wishlist. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my fair and honest review.

This is a great little book, I loved it, so did my kids and I can’t wait to share it with my students this year. It is so well explained. The language is carefully chosen to be as easy to understand as possible. The facts are so interesting. The entire book is refreshing and so informative. I loved it.

From the same team who brought The Water Cycle (Ganeri and Oxlade writing, and Morgan illustrating), comes this one about volcanoes and earthquakes. Once again our guides are Ava and George who seem to have an extraordinary wealth of knowledge about a commendable diversity of topics! Would that our president was as well-informed as these two kids are. In this one we go up to the top of volcanoes and deep into the Earth's core.

In this volume we learn of magma chambers and ash clouds, of sliding sandwiches and lava lamps. Actually I made up that last one, but we do have sliding sandwiches so kids can make their own fault lines and strike slips! Fun! The kids take us through tectonic plates and home-made volcanoes and educate us along the way. The only thing I found fault with (if you'll excuse the pun) was that in the section on famous earthquakes it seemed to be largely the USA which was featured - San Francisco and Alaska, with a mention of Kobe in Japan.

It's a little tiresome for the US to always be puffing-itself up into the forefront, like the rest of the world doesn't exist. San Francisco barely makes it into the top ten of the most devastating earthquakes. All of the others were elsewhere, such as the appalling St Stephen's tsunami of 2004 in the Indian Ocean, and the devastation in Haiti less than a decade ago. I felt it disrespectful that the US was held up as being famous (for what exactly?) as though nowhere else really matters, when these other disasters took far more lives and some of which are far fresher in the world's memory. The world isn't the US and the fiction that it is has become a serious and dangerous problem under our current president. This insularity and provinciality needs to stop.

That aside though, I consider this book an informative and worthy read.

This is a great resource book and detailed learning experience, one of a series of publications in a set called The Geo Detectives.
This one, Volcanoes and Earthquakes was an ARC I received via NetGalley, for an open and honest review.
It is pitched well, it is both entertaining and educational in content and engagement.
However, I found it jumpy and lacking a cohesion across both subjects. While the facts are clear and presented in accessible chunks it is this lack of continuity from one page to the next that to my mind clouded the learning outcomes.
The book tries to also introduce practical experiments to learn while having fun. They are clear in what is needed but seem overcomplicated and as a parent leaves me concerned over the residual mess afterwards. Without testing them out it would be discourteous to comment in detail or authority.
The book wins for me in that the topics are introduced in a profession manner. I would be interested to learn what a teacher or educator made of the publication. The links at the back for using in a classroom setting appear a little obvious and patronising. For adults though wanting to share with their kids serious issues that effect our environment and are often headlining our media this is a great start. It is a sharing book for me, not a tool-kit for younger children to get on with on their own.
Liked the glossary of terms and links to further reading via websites and where to learn more.
I recognise the passion of the authors and enjoyed the style of writing and illustrations. I would look out for more books in the series and feel confident to recommend them to others.

This book was educational and age appropriate it doesn’t bombard you with very big words so it’s a good learning tool for younger kids. The illustrations are bright and pop out. The activities are all related to what is being talked about and the tools are mostly Readily available in most households.

I have always been fascinated with earthquakes and volcanoes. Fascinated and terrified. I found this book enjoyable and easy to understand. Educational without being boring. The bright colors and small text blurbs were very simple, and informative. This is a great learning tool for kids.

This series "Geo detectives" is very interesting for teachers but also for parents who want to answer their children's questions ! ^^

Just like the previously read book " Geo detectives - Water cycle", this volume gives precise but very clear explanations on volcanoes and earthquakes this time: the tectonic plates, the different types of volcanoes and their characteristics, earthquakes and their consequences or the tsunamis.
With that, there are new experiences to make, whether at home or in class, to better understand.

In short, a very good discovery, with an educational message! ^^

I received an electronic ARC from Quarto Publishing Group through NetGalley.
Simple to follow informative text for elementary level readers. the Geo Detectives explore volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. Oxlade uses a variety of styles to deliver information - captions, short paragraphs, bullet points, factoids - to keep the reader's attention. Simple experiments are presented throughout the book. These provide great opportunities to learn together as families or classes. Information for teachers and parents provided at the end of the book.
Looking forward to reading mor in this series.

One delightful thing about reading and reviewing children's titles is the opportunity that is presented to learn like a child again. I never studied volcanoes and earthquakes when I was in school; I remember magma from my kids' studies and that was about it. In this appealingly illustrated title, I learned about geology with Ava and George. They were excellent guides.

This book provides lots of information and terminology in small easy to learn pieces. There are many GeoFacts and experiments to try at home as children learn about volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. At the end of the book, there are a useful review section, an author's note and a list of websites for young scientists who want to learn more.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review. You and your young scientist will love it.

This is another great Geo Detective book. Changing up the types of natural disasters being discussed really held my kids interest. Most the experiments are things my kids and I could very easily recreate with things in our homes. The tsunami experiment being the outlier seeing as I don't exactly have pieces of lumber laying about. The art was adorable as ever and the facts were fun and interesting for my kids as well as myself.

My 7 year old scientist daughter loved this book! She loved the Geo Detectives and the pictures and the facts...and she wants to do ALL of the experiments! What a fun way to learn about volcanoes and earthquakes. Highly recommended!

This was such a cute and educational book that my students loved! It was a great book to read during a break in science, as it entertained and kept my students still involved with Science.

Geo Detectives: Volcanoes & Earthquakes is a new book aimed at younger readers in the Geo Detectives series. Released 17th Sep. 2019 by Quarto on their QEB imprint, it's 32 pages and available in hardback and paperback formats.

I've long been an advocate of STEAM education and books like this, which stimulate kids' natural interest in science and nature can be a fun and useful part of focusing that interest. Earth science is cool and this book provides an accessible and factual introduction to volcanoes and earthquakes along with other geo-science.

Each of the pages is full of colorful graphics with sidebars including some photographs along with explanatory text. There are short labs with exercises using safe and easily sourced materials to illustrate the theory. The DIY sections are short and do a good job of showing how fun and interesting science can be.

The geo detective narrators, Ava and George, are appealing and friendly. I liked the inclusiveness of having both girl and boy, as well as that Ava is a person of color. It's a subtle little bonus in a book that's scientifically and factually correct. The book includes a question quiz at the end as well as a glossary, links list for further reading, and some notes for resource people (primarily aimed at parents and teachers).

This would make a superlative school or home library book as well as a good support text for geo-science core units in a classroom setting.

Five stars, very well done.

Two little detectives discovering some seriously incredible natural wonders? What's not to love!

Packed with fun facts, exciting geography topics and creative activities and projects (like making your own model tsunami wave!), Volcanoes and Earthquakes is as equally fun as it is informative. And this is just one book of many, I hope. With volcanoes and earthquakes and also water cycles covered, I'm excited to see what the Geo Detectives will explore next.

Volcanoes and Earthquakes is one of the Geo Detectives series in which we get to follow Ava and George as they go on a mission to find out more about a topic, with this one being volcanoes and earthquakes. From the front cover alone we could see this was going to be a fun read and it didn't disappoint!

Having Ava and George leading the book is a great way to keep the children engaged and keep a constant throughout, it was fun for the children to see how they would be involved in the page like pushing the land to demonstrate an earthquake or pointing towards something we might not have noticed.

I think the book is layed out brilliantly with each page having a sub topic and lots of facts regarding that topic in an easy to understand way for children but also ensuring good quality facts and information. For more complicated words, they are made bold, which is great as it makes it noticeable and easy to see that the meaning will be in the glossary at the back of the book.

The illustrations are fantastic with lots of fun and cartoon style images throughout but also where relevant there are maps and photos which is a nice touch. I was quite surprised by just how many activities there are within this book, it is fantastic to see them and with activities suiting a range of ages and difficulties like a cookie resembling the crumbling of the earth and a sandwich representing how the land moves in an earthquake. They are very easy to follow and relevant to the information in the book and so brilliant for children who may learn better by trying it out themselves or visually. To finish the book of there are some questions for the children to answer and a parent / teacher section which suggest further areas of study which are very helpful and would be great to extend knowledge after this book.

The children have really enjoyed looking at this book, it is one of the best books on the topic I have seen. It doesn't have vast amounts of information like some books do but what it does have is done in such a child friendly way leaving lots to think about or to encourage learning more, well worth a read for primary school aged children!

4.5 stars.

This was a nice short read for some information starters for volcanoes and earthquakes. It was concise with activities every two pages or so.

The art is really adorable and I love that it filled the whole page.

The only problem I found was that the disasters felt a bit downplayed (at least for me it did) as if they're not that life threatening but they did add an earthquake aid kit in the end.

Overall, it'd be a good read for children but parents should watch out for some of the activities since they could make a bit of a mess!

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.

Great book for elementary classes. Simple pictures and easily understood writing. The experiments were easy to do. Yet explains it all. A great addition to a science library.

Did you know you can use a cookie to help your child visualize what happens with the tectonic plates on the Earth's crust? Or that a jam sandwich can show the movement of different faults during an earthquake? If your children are interested in all this, then get them this book!
I enjoyed how the information was presented in this book. The authors managed to relay substantial knowledge in an approachable way. This book is suitable for all young scientists and those with curious minds.
Thank you to Net Galley and QEB Publishing for providing me with an e-book copy in exchange for my honest review!

Both the story and the experiments in this book are great for your kids or students! I really like that the two are combined in one book, keeping it interesting for kids who might not enjoy an experiments-only book quite as much as one with a storyline as well.

Join Ava and George as they explore mighty natural phenomena in Ganeri & Oxlade's Geo Detectives: Volcanoes & Earthquakes. A perfect introduction to the natural world for young readers, stuffed full of neat facts and awesome experiments. With easy to find materials, and ingredients, budding geo detectives can get up close and personal with the mechanisms behind volcanic eruptions, tectonic plate movement and more! I read this with my cubs, and we had fun trying the experiments. Definitely a bonus for teaching grade school science!

***Many thanks to the Netgalley & Quarto Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.