In crisp black-and-white photographs, Ulli Steltzer documents the beauty and precision of an igloo's construction - from stacking blocks of snow to cutting a door - in this informative picture book.
After a brief introduction to the Arctic climate, black and white photos and simple step-by-step directions show and tell how to build an igloo. If I had read this as a child, I absolutely would have tried to build my own. But I guess our snow forts were easier and faster, albeit more dangerous and temporary. Kids will be intrigued by the subject matter and inspired to build their own structure even if it's only a blanket fort inside.
My oldest son loves building and I thought this might be a winner for us but it somehow didn't grab our attention as much as I had hoped. For one, the photographs are quite dated and a bit grainy. For another, the text is pretty dry. I also felt like more explanation of the engineering and physics behind it was needed for children -- my son kept wondering how they could build it so strong that they could stand on top of it? That said, igloos really are pretty fascinating and he did some blueprints then tried to build one when we had our snow, so I know he connected to it on some level ;-)
I actually liked this book. I thought it was going to be boring because it’s about igloos but I was wrong. I never knew there was this much work into making them. This book can be used in a science lesson or in art.
I thought the pictures in this book were really great for showing what a real igloo might look like and how one is built. However, I thought the step-by-step overview was a little confusing, especially for young readers.