Eruption (Storm Runners)

Smith, Roland     Eruption (Storm Runners)       

Scholastic/Grolier/Childrens Press/Watts  2012  156p  $16.99  978-0-545-08174-0  E-BN   ms/hs Realistic Fiction

This book can be read in isolation from the previous two books in the series, but the numerous people presented in the first chapters will confuse all but the most careful reader who is experiencing Storm Runners for the first time.  Once the action gets going in this adventure, the six main characters are easy to identify.  

Chase and his father are on the scene of natural disasters to help people rebuild.  An earthquake in Mexico takes them and the other characters to the mountains of Mexico, as they try to rescue a circus family trapped there.  From the cover, which grips the reader much like the hand trying to grip the top of a fissure caused by an earthquake, to the last page of the book, there is no letup in the dangerous situations presented in a realistic manner.  Besides the earthquake and resulting tremors, there is a volcano spewing ash and a tiger on the loose from a circus.  Without gore, but with numerous injuries sustained from falling debris and the lightning strike that cripples Chase’s father, this book is suitable for a read-aloud in upper-elementary and middle school.  

For hi/lo readers in high school, the action will surely keep their attention since the vocabulary is easy to decipher.  All the characters, both male and female, are believable, and their cohesion as a group is much to be admired. This is the last book in a trilogy, and it explains the secrets that Chase’s father has been keeping, as well as an answer to the question of why Chase and his father have been on the move over the last two installments.        

E-BN        Lois McNicol      Earthquakes, Adventure