Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth

by Molly Bang, Penny Chisholm, Molly Bang (Illustrator)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545577854
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/30/2014
Series:	Sunlight
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	82,099
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	NC860L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Penny Chisholm is a professor at M.I.T., where she has been teaching Ecology for more than thirty-five years. Her long list of prestigious awards includes the National Medal of Science, awarded at the White House in 2013.
Molly Bang has written and illustrated more than twenty books for young readers, including When Sophie Gets Angry — Really, Really Angry... ; Ten, Nine, Eight; and The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher, each of which were Caldecott Honor books. Bang divides her time between Falmouth, Massachusetts, and Northern California.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for OCEAN SUNLIGHT: HOW TINY PLANTS FEED THE SEAS:A BOOKLIST Editor's Choice & Top 10 Book for YouthA Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice TitleA Kirkus Best Children's Book Title* "This ambitious, beautifully illustrated book offers information seldom covered in science books for young children."—BOOKLIST, starred review* "Bang creates dimension and visual drama with her use of gold, blues, and black, forming an ethereal habitat for phytoplankton, jellyfish, and bioluminescent creatures."—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review* "An awe-inspiring lesson in photosynthesis goes under the sea. . . . Readers will want to visit more than once to capture both the science and the abundant sense of celebration here."—KIRKUS REVIEWS, starred reviewPraise for LIVING SUNLIGHT: HOW PLANTS BRING THE EARTH TO LIFE:* "If a good picture book does what it sets out to do, a great one sets out to do something huge and succeeds. . . . An outstanding book to read and absorb."—BOOKLIST, starred review - "Chisholm, a professor of ecology, expands on the theme [photosynthesis], while the intense greens of Bang's gouaches bring it vibrantly to life."—THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW- "LIVING SUNLIGHT is less a tutorial on photosynthesis than a magnificent celebration of life."—NATURAL HISTORYPraise for MY LIGHT:* "A lovely and illuminating book that presents sound science while expressing the wonder of flipping a switch and flooding a room with light."—BOOKLIST, starred review- "Bang's imagery and word choice provide a vivid text for her readers. And then there are the illustrations: phenomenal only begins to explain Bang's choices in her use of color and composition. . . . This is a picture book that should be found in all libraries."—CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

From the Publisher

07/01/2014
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

School Library Journal

★ 2014-06-30
This fourth in Chisholm and Bang's series about the sun's relationship to life on Earth explores its ancient stores of fossil fuels and the effect of intense and rapid consumption of these in recent human history.The sun's first-person voice puts readers at the center: "Yes, living things—including YOU—need energy to stay alive and grow." The explanation begins with plants and moves concisely through photosynthesis and the use of the resulting carbon chains and animal production of carbon dioxide. Bang's edge-to-edge art in rich blues and greens is stippled with color suggesting, variously, energy in sunlight, microscopic life and the release of carbon gases. Reds and yellows convey the heat of the sun as well as that of cities and deserts. This lively diagram of the relationships among plant and animal, sunlight, CO2 production and the Earth's "blanket" of atmosphere is pitched to somewhat older readers than the earlier books. The result of the relatively sudden excess of CO2 on what was formerly an ebb and flow of warmth and cooling is direct. " ‘SO WHAT?' some people say. / SO THIS:" precedes the description of how and why more heat is trapped under the Earth's blanket and what climate changes are now being seen. Abundant backmatter provides a more detailed explanation of the science introduced earlier.Gorgeous illustrations and impressive, urgent scientific explanation. (Nonfiction.7-12)

Kirkus Reviews