Olympic: Touch of the Tidepool, Crack of the Glacier

Adventures with the Parkers #5

by Mike Graf, Marjorie Leggitt (Illustrations)

In book five of the award-winning Adventures with the Parkers series, the Parkers journey to the Pacific Northwest to explore Olympic National Park and its three spectacularly diverse regions. With their usual intrepid spirit, James, Morgan, Mom, and Dad explore the tide pools along the coast, hike through Olympic’s dense rain forest, and backpack to the high country to experience the famed alpine scenery and immense glaciers. Treacherous mountain terrain could stop them in their tracks. Could it prove to be ultimately too dangerous? Mike Graf , a national park fanatic, is an instructor at Chico State University and a weatherman for KHSL-TV.

96 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2002

About the author

Mike Graf currently teaches classes in child development and children's literature at Chico State University. Graf has been a TV weathercaster and an elementary school teacher for nine years. A national park fanatic, Graf visits many national parks across the country every year. He lives in Chico, California.

Reviews

[Pumkin pie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good, nerve-wracking and exciting, but I thought it was going to be more about nature and nature facts. Still, a very good and fun book !

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this from the library because of an upcoming trip (thinking it might have useful info about tide pools). It was informative but the writing style is annoyingly didactic. It does include adventure alongside lots of informative details, so perhaps it would appeal to the middle-grades target audience (perhaps they wouldn't be as put off by the writing style as I was). Apparently it's part of a series - "Adventures with the Parkers". I wonder if I would find all of them vaguely annoying? (And sadly, not that much about tide pools, despite the prominence in the title. Also kind of annoying that he doesn't specifically name the places they are staying - more along the lines of "the campground" or "the beach", even though there are multiple of each.)

[Kristal Stidham]

I'm kind of on-the-fence about this one... as far as kids' books go, it wasn't very entertaining because the plot and dialogue were so contrived, but it was quite educational... I actually learned a lot about the National Park I'm living in, especially toward the end of the book.

[Iowazzz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Need to learn more knowledge about nature and wildlife. Mark.

[Julie Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Olympic National Park, touch of the tide pool, crack of the glacier, a family journey in one of our greatest national parks by Mike Graf
Have visited this park with our daughter and her family several times and always find new things to discover.
Wasps are most dangerous in this park. Like different parts of this park as we've experienced it ourselves. so diversified and huge.
Seeing emergency rescue in action wasn't what I had thought but it was great. Lots of different places to go, we enjoyed many of them.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).