Lightning by Seymour Simon - Book Review

Book Review

Lightning by Seymour Simon (Morrow Junior Books, 1997)

Ages 7-12, younger with help

Seymour Simon has a flair for spotting the interesting detail that makes a page of nonfiction memorable. Did you know that Tucson, Arizona typically gets ten thousand strokes of lightning per night during the rainy season? Or that the temperature of a bolt of lightning is five times hotter than the surface of the sun?

Lightning is full of details like that. Even more memorable are the photographs - at least one full-color, full-page, spectacular photo per page, showing lightning in all its forms and in all its glory. My favorite, for sheer "eeek" potential, is the one of a pool packed with cavorting swimmers - playful except for the dark sky and bolts of lightning in the background. "Get out now!," you want to scream at the swimmers.

Young kids will love the pictures, but there's plenty of science for older kids too. Too bad the designers forgot to put in headings and stuck with the full-page width, double spaced text format that is typical of much less interesting books. Tell the kids not to be fooled - it's actually a good book.

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