Book Reviews by Carol Neeland for LS 5603: Literature for Children and Young Adults

Summary:

This book explains how lightning is created, how it travels, and what happens when it hits an object. It also gives details on how scientists study lightning, what the three main types of lightning are, and how lightning and thunder are related. At the end of the book there is an explanation of what people should do to stay safe during a lightning storm.

Critical Analysis: 

This book presents interesting factual information in a manner that is wholly accessible to children of all age levels. Even pre-readers like my 5 year old son are drawn in by the fantastic photographs and simple sentences that lend themselves to being read aloud. On the second page of the book Simon uses comparisons that help illustrate how powerful and how fast lightning is: 

“A flash of lightning is brighter than ten million one-hundred-watt lightbulbs… but because the flash takes only a millionth of a second, the electricity in a bolt would power one lightbulb for only a month.” 

As Tunnell and Jacobs point out, such comparisons in non-fiction literature for children are one of the techniques that make the information more accessible and more interesting. This is also one of the features that most textbooks lack – the “hook” that makes the information meaningful and relevant to young minds. Another example of making the information accessible to kids is on page 5: 

“On a dry day, drag your shoes along a carpet, then touch a metal doorknob and watch the spark jump! For an instant, you become a thundercloud by gathering charged particles called electrons from the carpet. When you reach for the doorknob, electrons stream from your hand in a tiny lightning bolt.” 

The book helps to clarify common misconceptions about lightning. For example, most people assume that lightning comes from the sky, but the truth is: 

“Though this kind of lightning seems to shoot down from the clouds, what we actually see is the return stroke of electricity flashing upward from the ground.” (p. 3) 

The final part of the book contains suggestions for staying safe in a lightning storm. This section is particularly helpful to kids because it explains why their parents make them get out of the water during a storm. Kids may have heard that they are safe in a car because the rubber tires protect them during a storm. They may assume that they are also safe on their bicycles, but the book makes it clear that they are not. 

One small suggestion that I have for improving this book would be to include page numbers and an index. Granted, if the book is being enjoyed like a work of fiction and read from cover to cover, page numbers aren’t necessary. However, if a student is using the book for research or writing a book review it would be helpful for citing the pages if they were numbered. Note: in this review when I refer to page numbers I have counted the first page after the dedication as page one. 

I highly recommend this book, not just for scientific gathering of information, but for entertainment as well. The book and its photographs are fascinating. Even children who previously had no interest in lightning may develop an interest when they read this book. 

Review Excerpt: 

A purple-hued cover photo attracts readers to this fascinating topic. The stunning, vibrantly colored photographs help to explain the text, illustrating points such as the differences between the three kinds of lightning. Short, simple sentences make this topic accessible to younger readers but do not talk down to older report writers.

Blair Christolon, Prince William Library, Manassas, VA 

Connections: 

The books below might be of interest to students who enjoyed Seymour Simon’s Lightning: 

Stephen Kramer’s Lightning (Carolrhoda, 1992)
Jonathan Kahl’s Thunderbolt (Lerner, 1993) 

The following websites might also be of interest to students who have enjoyed reading Lightning: 

http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_pls/lst.html
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/overview.htm
http://science.howstuffworks.com/lightning.htm
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/survivors.htm 

The link below is a Webquest for Grade 5 students who are studying lightning in science class. Students might want to use Lightning by Seymour Simon as well as the books and websites suggested above when working on the Webquest.  http://education.byu.edu/ted/webquests/lightening.pdf  

Bibliographic Data:

Christolon, Blair. “Lightning” School Library Journal (1997), http://reviews.schoollibraryjournal.com/bd.aspx?isbn=0688146384&pub=sl. (accessed March 11, 2008).

Simon, Seymour. Lightning. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1997. ISBN Number: 0-688-14639-2

Tunnell, Michael, and James S. Jacobs. Children’s Literature, Briefly. 3 ed. Columbus: Pearson Education, 2004.

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