Bob Haduch

This book doesn't just tell about earthquakes -- it contains one! Pull the white plastic ring on the front, let it go, and the city scene shudders and shakes, like the real thing. Adults find it immensely amusing, and kids are bound to like it. Beyond that, the book is surprisingly informative about the nature and causes of earthquakes, their history, magnitude, prime locations, and relationships to our planet's structure and continent drift. All this is given in language easy for kids and teens to understand, with great diagrams.

Also included (under a heading "None of This Stuff is True") are historical ideas about the causes of earthquakes. Whereas Aristotle thought them to be caused by wind blowing through underground caves, Ben Franklin blamed them on electricity. In New Zealand, the Maoris thought Mother Earth had a baby inside, who (every once in a while) gave the earth a swift kick. Ancient Central American peoples "thought the earth was held up by four gods, who occasionally tipped it to get rid of surplus people." And ancient Siberians said that the earth travelled through space on a giant dogsled; when the dogs stopped to scratch their fleas, the earth would shake. Following the creationist line of argument, perhaps we should require science teachers to go beyond the continental drift theory to teach explanations involving pregnant planets and giant dog fleas. :-)… (más)