{"id":242557,"date":"2025-07-06T11:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T11:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/242557\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T11:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T11:28:10","slug":"childrens-book-reviews-a-celebration-of-science-and-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/242557\/","title":{"rendered":"Children\u2019s Book Reviews: A Celebration of Science and Scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Cyrisse Jaffee<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two new books explore how scientists are helping preserve and manage the natural world. <\/p>\n

Hurricane<\/a> by Jason Chin. Neal Porter Books\/Holiday House<\/p>\n

Just In Case: Saving Seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault <\/a> by Megan Clendenan. Illustrated by Brittany Cicchese. Charlesbridge<\/p>\n

In a time when the work of scientists is itself endangered, these two picture books provide detailed and fascinating insights into how science helps us live in the modern world.<\/p>\n

\"\"In Hurricane, Jason Chin tracks an emerging hurricane as it races towards Hatteras Island (aka Cape Hatteras) in North Carolina. The narrative offers a wealth of details about hurricanes in general as it tells the story of this particular storm, from the time it is spotted by meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center until it unleashes its power on the island.<\/p>\n

Day by day, with outstanding illustrations, the book shows the hardworking teams of forecasters, as well as brave Hurricane Hunters\u2014an \u201celite group of scientists and pilots who fly into hurricanes.\u201d As they gain more precise knowledge about the force and track of the storm, residents begin to prepare. They secure their homes, tie down their boats, move their cars to higher ground, and check in on their neighbors. As the storm intensifies, the island is evacuated.<\/p>\n

Finally, the hurricane hits, flooding the streets, damaging trees and houses, and wrecking the docks. When it\u2019s over, people return, and \u201cbegin the long task of cleaning up\u2026 and they will get through it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Written with the help of experts from the National Hurricane Center, NOAA, and others, the text is engaging, informative, and filled with the kinds of details that will answer elementary school-aged kids\u2019 questions and concerns. And the pictures by Chin, who has won the Caldecott Medal, the Sibert Honor, and the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award, are splendid.<\/p>\n

The respect and admiration for science and scientists continues in the back matter, which includes several pages of additional information. A note from the author explains that \u201cglobal warming, caused primarily bythe\u00a0 burning of fossil fuels, is making hurricanes more dangerous.\u201d The fictional storm in the book is based on several actual storms that impacted Hatteras, including \u201cIsabel (2003), Dorian (2019), and Irene (2011).\u201d School libraries will no doubt purchase this, but if you live in a hurricane-prone area, it would also be a good home addition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A seed vault deep in the Arctic may seem like an unlikely topic for a children\u2019s picture book. Yet Just in Case: Saving Seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a fascinating and important look at a lesser-known scientific marvel.<\/p>\n

With appealing illustrations, awash in color, the book tells the story of the importance of seeds, why we need to save them, and the efforts of scientists\u2014and everyday people\u2014to do so. Like animals, some seeds are in danger of becoming extinct, due to modern farming methods and climate change. \u201cEven though there are more than 20,000 plants humans can eat, today we rely on only 12 major crops for the majority of our food.\u201d Thus, many varieties go unused and could disappear. The lack of biodiversity could hurt us in the future.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, there are 1,700 seed banks around the world. Some are large and sophisticated: The \u201cMillennium Seed Bank in England is floodproof, bomb-proof, and temperature-controlled.\u201d Others are small and simple \u201ccommunity spaces with jars of seeds on shelves.\u201d In Norway, architects, engineers, and scientists came together to develop a seed vault that would eventually hold 580 million seeds\u2014<\/strong>with room for more. The vault, which opened in 2008, received 80,000 seeds in the first five years. There are several methods to store the seeds, which could potentially last \u201chundreds of years or more.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2011, a seed bank in war-torn Syria sent thousands of local seed varieties to Svalbard. Four years later, many of these seeds were \u201cwithdrawn\u201d from the bank and planted in Lebanon and Morocco, thus saving crops of lentils, chickpeas, and other crops.<\/p>\n

Shining a light on this venture is itself a worthy cause. Kid gardeners will no doubt be particularly interested, but so will kids of all kinds. The language and subject matter make this appropriate for upper elementary school-aged kids. It\u2019s not only ideal for a classroom library but could make a unique addition to a home library as well.<\/p>\n

Cyrisse Jaffee<\/strong> is a former children\u2019s and YA librarian, children\u2019s book editor, and a creator of educational materials for WGBH. She holds a master\u2019s degree in Library Science from Simmons College and lives in Newton, MA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Cyrisse Jaffee Two new books explore how scientists are helping preserve and manage the natural world. Hurricane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-242557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114806057658337637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}