EARTHQUAKES

What is an earthquake? What causes it? The author and illustrator of Caves: Mysteries Beneath Our Feet (2001) tackle this difficult topic for beginning readers with only partial success. It’s hard to picture an earthquake, and harder still to imagine “a rock up to sixty miles thick . . . bigger than the United States . . . floating on an ocean of rock 1,800 miles deep.” The author describes how tectonic plates rub together and split apart, shaking, breaking, and releasing gasses from inside the earth. He describes how scientists measure the strength of earthquakes with the Richter Scale. Brightly colored illustrations are decorative but not especially helpful. For example, the illustration of one plate slipping below another shows wide bands of magenta, red, orange, a black line, blue, and brown bands, with yellow arrows pointing in opposite directions. Hard to tell what’s happening. This entry in the Earthworks series will be tough going for its intended young audience. (Nonfiction. 7-9)