Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens [Paperback]

Patricia Lauber (Author)

Book Description

May 18, 1980, 8:32 A.M.:

An earthquake suddenly triggered an avalanche on Mount St. Helens, a volcano in southern Washington State. Minutes later, Mount St. Helens blew the top off its peak and exploded into the most devastating volcanic eruption in U.S. history.

What caused the eruption? What was left when it ended? What did scientists learn in its aftermath?

In this extraordinary photographic essay, Patricia Lauber details the Mount St. Helens eruption and the years following. Through this clear accurate account, readers of all ages will share the awe of the scientists who witnessed both the power of the volcano and the resiliency of life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dramatic photographs and forthright text paint a compelling picture of the devastation and gradual rebuilding following this 1980 cataclysm. Ages 7-10.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8 After the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, a number of fine books for young readers appeared which discussed at length this catastrophe, the devastation it created, and the geologic forces which caused it. Although providing less detail in these areas, Lauber brings the other titles up-to-date by describing the biological succession and geological changes which have since occurred at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. This provides an excellent example of the interdependence of all plant and animal life. How the Earth itself creates new environments for living things which in turn reshape the Earth is demonstrated visually as well as verbally. The captioned high-quality color photographs are well-integrated with the text, superbly illustrating the written material. This volume is more suited to younger readers than the Aylesworths' The Mount St. Helens Disaster (Watts, 1983) and Goldner's Why Mount Saint Helens Blew Its Top (Dillon, 1981), and is more current. Meryl Silverstein, Meyer Levin Junior High School Library, Brooklyn
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (March 31, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689716796
• ISBN-13: 978-0689716799
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 9.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Nature > Earthquakes & Volcanoes
  • #10 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Nature > Earthquakes & Volcanoes
  • #80 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Fiction

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens, April 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens (Hardcover)

This nonfiction book is about volcanoes. It tells about the events leading to the erruption of Mount St. Helens. It describes, in exciting detail, the actual erruption and the eventual rebirth of the volcano. The photographs are great. They help to tell the story along with the words so that you can get a feel for the total destruction and devastation caused by the erruption. The nice thing about the story is that it also includes the rebirth of the volcano and tells of a life cycle that can never be broken.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book for any kid (and parent) interested in the eruption., October 15, 2008

By 

T. A. Delzer (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens (Paperback)

When my daughter's daycare class started exploring volcanoes last fall I really wanted to get a good book on volcanoes to help me explain them to her well. This book was one of the most recommended books on the subject that amazon carried so it was a natural choice. That it explores the devastation wrought by Mt. St. Helens' 1980 eruption was all the better since we had just visited the area a couple months before.

Well, instead of the book going to the daycare for sharing it's stayed home as a bedtime book. I typically just sort of narrate the very good images in the book and when she asks a question I refer to the text around that image for more information.

The book has fantastic photos of the area (rivers, lakes, trees standing and just utterly blasted away, as well as plants and animals returning to the area) before and after the eruption. There is no photo capturing any human or animal suffering but the billowing ash and smoke was enough to worry my 5-year-old a bit - she certainly understood what those pictures meant.

The text is, in some ways, even better than the photos because it provides a great deal of introductory terms from geology and other physical sciences without being too boring or too difficult for a parent to supplement on the fly.

"Volcano" is an excellent way to explain what volcanoes are and what they can do as well as how the earth is resilient, continually changing, and perhaps can appear serene and whole when just a few short years ago (even within my daughter's father's lifetime!!) the land looked barren and gray.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The sleepy giant Mount St. Helens, February 16, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Volcano: The eruption and healing of Mount St. Helens (Paperback)

This book about Mount St. Helens is really good. It give you alot of information about the silent, still, big and sleepy giant - Mount St. Helens. This sleepy giant was built by many eruptions over thousands of years. The pictures of the mountain are great because they show images before the eruption with green land all over and then after with just molten lava. How the earth spill the hot (magma) rock from inside. A volcano can be very destructitive to the land. The photograph shot from the helicopter shows very little life left like the moon after the explosion from the volcano on the mountain sides. Can you image how beautiful Mount St. Helens was before the eruption and destruction?