Along Florida's coast, people board up their homes and the animals head inland. A hurricane is bearing down on the coast. When it reaches land, howling winds uproots trees and homes with equal ease. A storm surge devastates the town. Then, after the eerie quiet of the hurricane's eye, the winds howl again, toppling structures that had survived the first onslaught and washing away the remains.
Even as the last of the storm dies down, the process of renewal gradually begins. In the face of a massive disaster, the people, the animals, and the land itself will always find a way to survive and triumph once more.
Award-winning author/illustrator Celia Godkin is known for her children's books that explore nature's remarkable ability to renew itself. In this stunning new book, she has chosen the Florida coast to show that even a hurricane's most destructive force is an integral part of a thriving ecosystem.
"Godkin's gentle illustrations-paintings in water-soluble oil on canvas and drawings in ink and watercolor on paper-add luminous grace to this simple look at the effects of violent tropical storms. Handsome and useful."
— School Library Journal
"Beautifully drawn and detailed, "Hurricane!" is a life lesson and an interesting, engaging picture book."
— The Telegram (St. Johns, NL)
"Award winning author Celia Godkin has done it again! . . The detailed description of the phases of the hurricane allows the readers to almost feel and hear the storm itself. . . The illustrations in this book are beautifully presented and provide encouragement for further discussion on every page!
Rating: Excellent."
— Resource Links
"As in her previous award-winning book, Fire! The Renewal of a Forest, Godkin explores the cycle of nature in a thoroughly engaging and accessible manner. A must-have for non-fiction collections.
Highly recommended."
— CM Magazine
"'Hurricane!' is a beautifully illustrated children's book using a naturalist's approach to describing the effects and impact of a tropical super storm, or hurricane. Wonderful detailed pictures of manatees, birds, opossum, squirrels, shellfish, and mangrove trees are used to educate the reader. . . Such educational approaches are ever more necessary as we observe the increasing effects of global warming, including tropical super storms, or hurricanes."
— Midwest Book Review
Celia Godkin trained as a biologist and worked as a scientific illustrator. An illustration job preparing signs for the Winnipeg zoo led to a collaboration on the book Endangered Species: Canada's Disappearing Wildlife. Encouraged by this success Celia illustrated an ecology story she had written years earlier and showed it to her publisher. The resulting book, Wolf Island, won the Children's Literature Roundtables Best Information Book Award and was the first of six (so far) beautiful and informative books that explore nature's remarkable ability to renew itself. The others include Ladybug Garden, Sea Otter Inlet, When the Giant Stirred, and Fire!, which was short-listed for several awards including the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction. Celia now lives in an old farmhouse in Eastern Ontario.
On Resource Link's "Best of 2008" List
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