Tsunami Monster Waves

Information for Students

Author: Mary Dodson Wade Title: Tsunami Monster Waves

Book Genre: Informational Publishing Info: Enslow pp. 48

Summary: Although Hawaii is popular for its lush tropical paradise, a monstrous and deadly killer works offshore. Tsunamis are huge sets of waves, usually between two and ten feet, that ravage the coast of Hawaii yearly. The waves can reach heights hundreds of feet tall and span out miles across the ocean. Focusing mainly on the deadliest tsunami, the events that unfolded on April 1, 1946, on the coast of Hawaii would never be the same.

Personal Rating: ****

Rationale: Well-written, descriptive illustrations and photographs, problems related to tsunami disasters, descriptive and informational plot

Information for Teachers

Reading Level: 5.7 Interest Level: 4th-6^th

Thematic Areas: Waves; earthquakes; death; destruction of land; troughs; crests

Content Areas: Oceanography; meteorology; history; science

Potential Problems or Difficulties: Children could develop fear of the ocean because the death and destruction of land that the tsunamis created. Information is a little “jumpy”, not sticking to certain topics.

Possible Use in Classroom: Read about Tsunamis on the internet, good site for this would be the National Geographic WORLD site. Discover how Tsunamis or formed. Find an eyewitness account from someone who survived a Tsunami (in either a newspaper or a real survivor) and have a class discussion. Have a discussion on what causes waves and tsunamis, and list ideas. Search the internet and discover facts about how waves and tsunamis are developed. Construct a Venn diagram, compare, and contrast tsunamis and waves.

Blair