Thunder and Lightning
Weather Past, Present, Future
by Lauren Redniss
Random House, New York, 2015. 262 pages.
Starred Review
Thunder and Lightning is another Science Picture Book for Adults by the author of Radioactive.
As with Radioactive, which is a biography of Marie Curie, Thunder and Lightning is full of facts – but the most striking thing about it is the dramatic pictures.
I can’t really describe the pictures adequately, so I’m going to focus on the words here, but be aware that if this is a book you find interesting at all, you should check it out and see for yourself.
The author explores so many aspects of weather! Mainly she tells weather-related stories, but there are also many things about the science of weather. Some of the stories told include a cemetery washed out by a flood, the secret forecasting formula used by Old Farmer’s Almanac, people struck by lightning, a ship that sunk in fog, swimming from Cuba to Florida, devastating fires in Australia, a World Seed Bank in Svalbard, the ice trade on Walden Pond, and making rain in Vietnam. This perhaps gives an idea of the wide range of topics covered here, which all relate to weather.
The author relies heavily on quotes, which bring an immediacy to each story, each exploration.
Here are some things Arctic explorer Vilhjálmur Stefánsson had to say in 1921:
The daylight is negligible; and the moonlight, which comes to you first through clouds that are high in the sky and later through an enveloping fog, is a light which enables you to see your dog team distinctly enough, or even a black rock a hundred yards away, but it is scarcely better than no light at all upon the snow at your feet.
I think my favorite chapter, though, is Chapter 7, “Sky.” After fascinating ramblings and explorations on various topics, I turned the pages on “Sky” – and discovered 16 pages of paintings of sky. Lovely.
This book is surprising and hard to describe. Check it out and see for yourself.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/thunder_and_lightning.html
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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.
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