Super Storms

by Seymour Simon

This bestselling title in the highly acclaimed SeeMore Readers series is now available in Spanish.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Childrens, Picture Books, 2nd Grade, 1st Grade

30 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Seymour Simon, whom the NY Times called "the dean of [children's science:] writers," is the author of more than 250 highly acclaimed science books (many of which have been named Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children by the National Science Teachers Association).

Seymour Simon uses his website, SeymourSimon.com, to provide free downloads of a wealth of materials for educators, homeschoolers and parents to use with his books, including 4-page Teacher Guides for all 26 of his Collins/Smithsonian photo essay books. The site provides multiple resources for kids writing book reports or wanting to explore the online Science Dictionary, and also features the Seymour Science blog highlighting current science news. Educators and families are encouraged to sign up to receive the monthly newsletter from SeymourSimon.com to stay abreast of the latest materials that Seymour Simon is introducing to enrich the reading experience.

He taught science and creative writing in elementary and secondary schools and was chair of the science department at a junior high school in the New York City public school system before leaving to become a full-time writer. "I haven't really given up teaching," he says, "and I suppose I never will, not as long as I keep writing and talking to kids around the country and the world."

Seymour Simon is also a creator and the author of a series of 3D books and a series of Glow-in-the-Dark Books for Scholastic Book Clubs, a series of leveled SEEMORE READERS for Chronicle Books, and the EINSTEIN ANDERSON, SCIENCE DETECTIVE series of fiction books. His books encourage children to enjoy the world around them through learning and discovery, and by making science fun. He has introduced tens of millions of children to a staggering array of subjects; one prominent science education specialist described Simon's books as "extraordinary examples of expository prose."

Seymour Simon has been honored with many awards for his work, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Lifetime Achievement Award for his lasting contribution to children's science literature; the New York State Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature; the Hope S. Dean Memorial Award from the Boston Public Library for his contribution to children's science literature; The Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for Non-fiction; the Jeremiah Ludington Award for his outstanding contribution to children's nonfiction; the Empire State Award for excellence in literature for young people; and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Forum on Children's Science Books.

In a recent interview Simon was asked if he ever thinks of retiring. "I seem to be working faster and harder than ever. I absolutely don't feel any urge to sit back and look at what I've done. The only things that I'm thinking about are things I'd like to do in the future. I'm planning and doing and continuing to write. It's what I love to do. I remember a story about an anthropologist going to talk to a tribe and he asked them what was their word for "work." Their response was they have no word for work. Everybody does the things that they do in their life. I love that response. I don't differentiate between work and play. Everything I do is something that I enjoy doing - the writing, the research and everything else."

Seymour Simon writes and photographs nature from his hilltop home in Columbia County in upstate New York, where he lives with his wife Liz Nealon.

You can follow Seymour on Facebook and on Twitter, as well as on his website, which offers free, downloadable Teacher Guides to his books for educators, parents and homeschoolers, as well as the popular Seymour Science Daily Blo

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit superficial style and content wise is Seymour Simon’s 2002 Super Storms, but considering that Super Storms is also meant and conceptualised for recently independent readers (for children from about the ages of six to eight or nine maximum), in my humble opinion, both the simplistic, the really basic writing style and that Seymour Simon equally keeps his facts for Super Storms pretty much sparse and totally descriptively unadorned, this does indeed make very much common sense (and in fact and actually, a more complicated narrative could likely and easily become textually overwhelming to and for the intended audience and make Super Storms a bit too difficult and potentially confusing for the intended age group). But indeed, the above having been said, and despise its simplicity and being rather informationally on the surface, Seymour Simon’s text for Super Storms still does more than adequately enough present and feature so-called super storms, describing both what they are like, how they work and also how destructive super storms can be and often are (thunderstorms, hailstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes and blizzards, although I do kind of wish that the Asian equivalents of tornadoes and hurricanes, that cyclones and typhoons would at least be mentioned). And thus, for the way that Seymour Simon manages to very basically but nevertheless with sufficient basic detail present his facts and figures, yes, I do generally consider Super Storms as very much suitable for the intended audience, for the intended age group, albeit the lack of an included bibliography is rather majorly and personally frustrating, as is the fact that Super Storms is also rather too USA centred for me (and thus not really all that globally balanced, not a huge issue, but certainly something that is noticeably annoying), and which is also why I would therefore probably not really all that strongly recommend Super Storms, since even for young and recently independent readers, a general introduction to major, to super storms should contain both bibliographic sources (and certainly suggestions for further reading) and definitely be more international in scope than Simon’s featured text presents itself as being with Super Storms (not bad, pretty informative as well, but also something that could be oh so much better and oh so much more interesting with a bit more textual effort and expansion, even considering that Super Storms is clearly meant for and geared towards young readers and/or listeners).

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colorful photographs with a variety of images depicting the wrath of large and destructive weather systems are the highlight of this children's book about storms. Some of the images are a bit dark and grainy, but others are very dramatic and impressive.

The narrative is short and printed in a large font, making this book very appropriate for beginning readers, even if some of the vocabulary is somewhat challenging.

Overall, it's an interesting read and will likely spark the interest of younger children to learn more about weather.

[Hayden Waller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was nothing short of informative. It almost felt like a textbook in terms of the information given within the story. Luckily I enjoy learning about storms and weather so I found this to be extremely interesting and knowledgeable. I definitely learned more about the topic of storms specifically lightning. I would recommend this book to children wanting to gain further understanding of meteorology!

[Zandalee Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super Storms was informative about storms telling what each storm is and what it is capable of doing. This would be a good book for kids that are interested in storms. My son is big into natural disasters and storm, so we read this and he was amazed to find out what some storms were capable of.

[James Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

James W Martian

[Jenna Snyder]

Title: Super Storms
Author: Seymour Simon
Illustrator: Seymour Simon
Genre: Photographic Essay
Theme(s): Severe storms, natural disasters
Opening line/sentence: The air around us is always moving and changing.
Brief Book Summary: There used to be a surplus of the beloved flightless bird, the kakapo, but when humans started taking over New Zealand, adding animals that started to prey on the defenseless bird, they started to dwindle quickly in numbers. Now that there are only around 80 of them left, a local-government sponsored research team is trying to do whatever they can in order to keep the world’s most strangest parrot from becoming extinct.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1:
Susan Hepler, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
A "See More Readers," Level 1 series book, Super Storms is an informational book for beginning readers. It covers sudden violent weather and gives readers facts about what causes these conditions. Tornadoes, hurricanes, thunderstorms, and blizzards are discussed and pictures show the disastrous results of a storm striking. Some recent storms are mentioned, a double-paged spread of a tornado frequency map of the United States and some interesting facts imbedded in the text add to reader interest.
Professional Recommendation/Review #2:
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2002 (Vol. 70, No. 8))
Chilling, thrilling, and packed with facts, these Level 2 "See More Readers," intended for children in grades 1-3, will capture the attention of beginners as well as older, less-able readers hungry for facts about the world. Simon (Destination Space, p. 427, etc.) links awesome photos to lucid explanations rich in detail.
Response to Two Professional Reviews: Both reviews are very short, the first one wrote that Super Storms is a Level 1 series book, but it is actually a Level 2. The second reviewer comments on the how awesome the photos are. I personally think the pictures could be more clear and vivid, especially because the photographs are one of the most important aspects of the book.
Evaluation of Literary Elements: The text does a great job of explaining each storm in a way that beginning readers can understand. The definitions aren’t too technical, but are still very informative. Although, in my opinion the pictures could be of better quality, Simon does a great job of picking a picture for each storm.
Consideration of Instructional Application: For older elementary I would teach my students about specific, famous storms that have occurred in the United States and the tragic aftermath of the storms. For younger elementary, I would have students create their own picture of a thunderstorm with paint and cut out lightening bolts and raindrops.

[Shannon Stinnette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the photographs that are included in this book make the book so interesting. My students love looking at the pictures of extreme weather that are shown. Examples include tornadoes, lighting strikes, hail, deep snow, and hurricanes. The first couple of pages explain weather as effects of air that moves and changes around us. The succeeding pages tell about and show images of extreme weather. I think this book would be an interesting addition to a unit on weather or seasons. I believe the images and the information provided about these extreme events will prompt curiosity in students. This book also provides images and tells about specific events in history and when and where they occurred. The addition of this information provides clues to students that the genre is non fiction.

[Bryce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super Storms by Seymour Simon is an elementary level book about all different kinds of storms. A few of the storms include tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning storms, and more. I learned a lot from reading the book even though it is intended for kids in elementary school. On each page there is a big picture as the background and the pictures of the storms were very intrigiung and fun to look at. Another aspect of the book I like is the small amount of words per page and the rather large font size. All in all, I recommend Super Storms to anyone with a lack of storm knowledge or anyone who just simply wants to see some cool pictures.

[Sarah A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book. It is all about storms - rain, lightning/thunder, blizzards and tornados. It is an early reader so meant for fairly young children. It's pretty scary. I know storms are scary but this book is aimed at kids and seems to have a small headline on what a storm is and then lists all the ways it can hurt you and misses out on how it forms, how we can manage one or when we have to hide. Just a bit too scary and lacks some information I would have liked to see.

[Kamil Alami]

Super Storms is a science book written by the famous author Seymour Simon. In this book, the author explain us what is a Super Storm, how is it formed, when does it occur... They also talk about cyclones, hurricanes...

The most interesting fast that learned me a lot of things is that winter weather and summer weather forces can collapse and form a winter time cyclone that is a big natural catastrophe.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an ok book about weather - mostly, some nice pictures and a string of related facts.

[Kathy Garner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple explanations of different kinds of storms.

[Latricia31560yahoo.Com]

Have read the book trying to read it

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

it is a good book

[Karen Probus · Rating 4 out of 5]

easy to read. great photos. Perfect for spring with changing weather patterns.

[Alison Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

super is one of the best books you can read and learn about storms because in this part the book says that in 1992 hurricane Andrew smashed into Florina and louisiana and the rest is sooooo cool you have to read it!!!!!

[Taryn Seymour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really cool photographs! Purely factual. Pictures all related directly to the text on each page. Exposed kids to charts and maps, but with a fun and interesting topic.