Science Comics: Volcanoes-Fire and Life, by Jon Chad, (Oct. 2016, First Second), $12.99, ISBN: 9781626723603
Recommended for ages 8-12
Earlier this year, we got a look at First Second’s two Science Comics, Coral Reefs and Dinosaurs. There’s great science and fun art wrapped up in each of these comics, so I was super-psyched when I met a First Second rep at the PLA Conference this year, and she told me that there were more Science Comics coming. True to her word, we’re getting Volcanoes in just a couple of weeks.
Similar to Coral Reefs, Volcanoes wraps information about volcanic activity into a story: there’s been some sort of environmental cataclysm, and Earth is freezing. A tribe is scanning books when Aurora, one of the kids, discovers a book about volcanoes; she is HOOKED. She’s saved her tribe! The power to warm the planet is right underneath their feet!
From there, Aurora becomes the reader’s guide through a look into the activity bubbling under the earth’s crust: there are magma vents, shifting tectonic plates, and volcanic eruptions. Volcanoes create just as much as they destroy: there are entire land masses that owe their existence to a volcanic eruption, just as there are entire cities that have been wiped out by them.
I’m very happy with the Science Comics I have at my library. The kids love them, and they appreciate the graphic representation and sequential paneling of information. The diagrams are vibrant, with comic book art adding some fun and easily memorable background information to the mix. I have a nicely developing nonfiction display full of comics, and the kids at my library love volcanoes and natural disaster books, so I’ll be booktalking this one, expounding on the joy of comic books.
Go mix up some papier mâche for your volcano project, and enjoy Volcanoes: Fire and Life.
Mom Read It 
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