“Volcano Wakes Up!”
By Lisa Westberg Peters, illustrated by Steve Jenkins
Holt, $16.99, ages 5-8
Lisa Westberg Peters and Steve Jenkins deserve a good-timing prize from readers eager to understand the Icelandic eruptions. Their topic is an imaginary Hawaiian volcano, a “little sister” of the Big Island’s larger volcanos. Readers hear about one day in poems in the voices of the volcano, the sun and moon, the ferns, the lava flow crickets and even a small black road. (It’s not easy, after all, being a small black road when the blowing volcano makes “red hot paving operations,” “spatter ramparts and steam vents” compete with you. The lava flow cricket’s kind of a hip-hop artist and the ferns are cooler than you might imagine. Steve Jenkins’ torn-paper collages are especially effective giving a third-dimension to the lava flow.
Mary Harris Russell, professor emeritus of English at Indiana University Northwest, reviews children's books for Tribune newspapers.