Oil Spill

Oil Spill!: Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico Elaine Landau

I am very familiar with Elaine Landau as she’s written several books for the True Books series, which is GOLD for all my 2nd and 3rd graders who have research reports to do. She also writes for a lot of different nonfiction series that make up the “report book” bulk of a public library collection.

Oil Spill takes a different track-- this isn’t a report book. Sure, it could definitely be used for a report, but it has a high pick-up-and-read browsability factor Landau walks the reader through the Deepwater Horizon spill-- from the initial explosion up to today.

For once, I FINALLY understand how that blowout preventer was supposed to work and how it failed. She explains the mechanics of how drilling works and what went wrong in a way that instantly makes sense without over-simplifying the situation.

This is one the far young side of Middle Grade. In 32 concise pages, she walks us through the spill, trying to stop the oil and gas from gushing out, the clean-up, the effects, and the aftermath, plus ways kids can help, index, glossary, and further reading. All the while, she conveys a lot of information in a super-accessible way.

Not to mention the text is full of big, bright diagrams and photographs.

It’s very well-done and a great book.

Book Provided by... my local library

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