Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth

by Molly Bang (Author)

Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade
Series: Sunlight
Acclaimed Caldecott Artist Molly Bang teams up with award-winning M.I.T. professor Penny Chisholm to present the fascinating, timely story of fossil fuels. What are fossil fuels, and how did they come to exist? This engaging, stunning book explains how coal, oil, and gas are really buried sunlight, trapped beneath the surface of our planet for millions and millions of years. Now, in a very short time, we are digging them up and burning them, changing the carbon balance of our planet's air and water. What does this mean, and what should we do about it? Using simple language and breathtaking paintings, Bang and Chisholm present a clear, concise explanation of the fossil-fuel energy cycle that began with the sun and now runs most of our transportation and energy use in our world. Readers will be mesmerized by this engaging fourth book in the award-winning Sunlight Series by Bang and Chisholm.
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$19.99

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4--The sun narrates this book about the slow creation but relatively quick depletion of fossil fuels, or "buried sunlight." Sounding like a father advising a child, the sun explains that while the Earth has always undergone periods of heating and cooling, those changes happened gradually, giving time for the species inhabiting the planet to adjust. Now humankind is burning--literally--through fossil fuels at such a pace that an extraordinary amount of carbon dioxide has been released within a few hundred years, heating up the atmosphere at a very rapid rate. Unless we find ways to use fossil fuels more discriminately and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide enveloping the earth, the climate will continue to destabilize with increasingly serious consequences. The sun ends by saying, "The choice is yours." While the audience deserves a straightforward discussion of environmental issues, a statement like this, especially when made to children, should be followed by empowering suggestions for action. A concluding section elaborates on points made in the main text, but the solutions listed--solar energy, nuclear energy--are beyond the reach of kids. Other than this criticism, the book is a solid resource of digestible information about our planet's past, present, and future. Bang's beautiful illustrations have a folk-art style and are saturated with deep blues and rich greens. An important, thought-provoking look at the growing environmental crisis.--Alyson Low, Fayetteville Public Library, AR

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

*"The sun gets stern as it turns to modern-day fossil fuel consumption, explaining human contributions to global warming: "Will you humans keep burning more and more fossil fuels...or will you work together?" Extensive end notes provide a deeper explanation of the science of climate change"- THE HORN BOOK MAGAZINE, starred review
Molly Bang
Molly Bang was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and grew up in Baltimore. She and her siblings spent summers in a scientific community by the ocean where parents worked in the labs and children learned to love the land and sea and mostly to avoid science, not realizing that science had infected them even they we rebelled against it. After studying language and literature in college, Molly became a largely self-taught artist and illustrator of children's books, her childhood dream.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9780545577854
Lexile Measure
860
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Blue Sky Press (AZ)
Publication date
September 30, 2014
Series
Sunlight
BISAC categories
JNF037060 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Science & Nature | Earth Sciences - Rocks & Minerals
JNF037020 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Science & Nature | Environmental Conservation & Protection
JNF051050 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Science & Nature | Biology
Library of Congress categories
Sunshine
Fossil fuels

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