Hurricanes By Seymour Simon

         This book is a longer one and jam packed with information about hurricanes from the early 1900's all the way up to Hurricane Katrina. There is discussion including all the main facts about the major hurricanes that have occurred over the last hundred years. This book is probably better for second grade and up, and would be good to use within a science unit or a science center. It would also be useful as a read aloud. Vocabulary words are defined like "hurricane," "tropical," "depression" etc. Hurricanes are described by how they are formed, how they move, the mass destruction that they cause and what you can do to protect yourself against them. There are lots of descriptive pictures depicting various hurricanes, and radar pictures showing infrared images and temperature color scales of past hurricanes. There is great detail about all the different categories of hurricanes and how these categories are defined. I learned many interesting facts such as: in 2005 there were 27 named tropical storms and fourteen hurricanes- the most storms and hurricanes ever in a single season. I also didn't know that hurricanes can set off dozens of small tornadoes or that in early 1900 a hurricane swept through Galveston, Texas causing the worst storm tide in United States history. There is also information included about what you need for a hurricane survival kit. Overall it is an informative book that can be used for research purposes. It is part of the "Smithsonian" series; this series also includes Sharks, Oceans, The Brain, The Heart, and Stars etc.