|
|
|
| Binding |
ISBN |
Price |
|
|
| H |
978-0-7945-1264-4 |
$9.99 |
|
| L |
978-1-60130-060-7 |
$17.99 |
|
|
| |
| Review of this title |
Norma Kellam - January 2007
Have your children ever dug holes in the yard? What if they kept digging and digging, forgetting to stop?
"Under the Ground" by Anna Milbourne, for ages 3 to about 7, acquaints children with numerous surprises, both living and inanimate, that they would find if they could explore below the Earth's surface. The text of this hardcover book in the "Picture Books" series speaks directly to the reader by using second person. For example, the question that begins the texts is, "Have you ever wondered what's under the ground?"
Serena Rigietti's multicolored illustrations each cover a whole page or a double page, with two to six lines of text per page superimposed on the illustrations. The picture for the first page of text depicts two children digging a hole in their backyard. The little girl in a pink jumper and the little boy in a two-tone blue shirt and short tan pants have chosen a spot beside a strawberry patch for this project.
The illustrations on the middle pages present various items that exist at different depths under the ground, beginning with plant roots, worms, and the inside of an ant hill. Items further down include a rabbit burrow, water and sewer pipes, subway trains, fossils in striped rock, and an underground gold and silver mine.
One of these illustrations depicts a cave with stalagmites rising up from the ground and stalactities hanging from the ceiling. Drops of water drip from several of the stalactites. Numerous bats with brown bodies and black wings are hanging upside down from the cave roof. Two flying bats have their wings spread wide. A yellow snake with large red spots curls around the spikes of a stalagmite. Finding an identical snake, whose head and tail stick out from behind the broad base of another stalagmite, requires a close look. The last of the four sentences on this double page reads, "Other caves are so deep and dark that no one's EVER seen them."
Toward the end of the book, an illustration shows the two youngsters with spades in their hands, deep inside the hole. The boy is digging with his spade. Above the children, the text says, "If you could dig even further undergroundm you'd be depper than anyone's ever been." Red and orange melted rock from the Earth's molten core appears on the same page, while the text alerts readers that they couldn't really be tehre without melting.
On the next page, a diagram shows the children's hole going to the center of a cross section of the Earth. Buildings, shrubbery, and oceans with boats appear around the outer edge, with a donut-shaped red ring surrounding a white circle to represent the boiling hot core. The two children continue digging. Readers will appreciate the clever surprise ending.
Only in a wild surge of imagination can children dig a hole to the center of the Earth. This skillful use of imagination can enlighten youngsters about a fascinating hidden part of their real environment.
|
|
Links