What Makes the Grand Canyon Grand?: The World's Most Awe-Inspiring Natural Wonders [Paperback]

Spencer Christian (Author), Antonia Felix (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Series: Spencer Christians World of Wonders

Discover a world of wonders . . . naturally!

How was the Grand Canyon created? What causes a volcano to erupt? Where is the world's longest river? Can a raindrop create a cavern?

Join popular ABC-TV weather forecaster Spencer Christian as he reveals the mysteries behind some of the world's most amazing waterways, mountains, forests, glaciers, caves, and more! Learn about natural forces and events that continue to change and shape our planet even today. Find out how water can carve through the earth's rocky surface like a knife through butter. Discover how forests serve as the earth's air recycler. Build your own volcano and watch it erupt!

What Makes the Grand Canyon Grand? is a spectacular tour through a dazzling assortment of Mother Nature's most intriguing masterpieces. Fascinating, easy-to-do activities let you experience nature up close, while dozens of fun facts and illustrations bring the world's wonders to awesome life.

For children ages 8 to 12

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6?Christian enumerates what he considers to be the seven natural wonders of the world and goes on to explain the scientific principles involved in the formation of each of them. His selections vary somewhat from traditional lists found in standard encyclopedias and almanacs. There are chapters on canyons, wild waters, caves, mountains, forests, glaciers, and icebergs that attempt to place the wonders in their natural context. Each chapter includes a somewhat random potluck of facts pertaining to the particular topic, along with experiments that are intended to illustrate the scientific principles under discussion. The format is somewhere between a newspaper and comic-book layout with lots of boxed insets and uninspired cartoons. Articles within the chapter are often interrupted by mini-asides or sidebars on related subjects. This jumbled presentation greatly detracts from the effectiveness of the information that the text attempts to convey. This shortcoming makes the title fairly useless for reports and almost too muddled to generate much browsing interest. It's hard to imagine an audience for this well-meaning but ill-conceived effort.?Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Christian and Felix (Can It Really Rain Frogs?, 1997, etc.) take readers on a globe-spanning tour of the natural world, pointing out its wonders topically with chapters on canyons, great rivers and waterfalls, glaciers and icebergs, caves, mountains, and forests. Plenty of boxed side comments, plus titles, boldface terms, and random words in a variety of type styles are nicely designed to catch a browser's eye; recurring gnomic representations of Christian mingle with a plethora of casually drawn views and diagrams. The authors have a gift for choosing memorable facts and anecdotes, but are guilty of oversimplification (e.g., ``The air in high levels of the atmosphere contains less oxygen''); several of the low-tech demonstrations are recipes for domestic disaster; since the rest of the book is about water and landforms, the chapter on forests is tangential. Written with enthusiasm, the book is too slapdash to be more than superficially useful. (index, not seen, maps, diagrams, glossary) (Nonfiction. 9-11) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 116 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (January 5, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471196177
• ISBN-13: 978-0471196174
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,653,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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