Boy, Were We Wrong about the Weather! by Kathleen V. Kudlinski (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Boy, Were We Wrong about the Weather! by Kathleen V. Kudlinski Elizabeth Bush Kudlinski, Kathleen V. Boy, Were We Wrong about the Weather!; illus. by Sebastià Serra. Dial, 2015 32p ISBN 978-0-8037-3793-8 $16.99 R 6-10 yrs Kudlinski returns with another round of science mythbusting (Boy, Were We Wrong about Dinosaurs, BCCB 1/06; Boy, Were We Wrong about the Solar System; BCCB 11/08). Although meteorologists are still risibly unreliable about the weather, Kudlinski demonstrates here that our knowledge of what drives weather has indeed come a long way from the Hittite rain dances to appease the god Enlil and the ancient Chinese interpretation of the flight path of the dragonfly to predict rain. This title charts a chronological course through scientific blunders, presenting first the entertaining misconception and then following it with current thinking. Some things that were once inconceivable, such as evidence for warm weather in polar regions and cold weather under current deserts, have now come indisputably to light. In other cases, though, the ancients weren’t all that far off: Europeans scoffed at the idea of hurricanes, which the Taino knew intimately, and seafarers’ “Red skies at night” jingle has a basis in reality. As to contemporary misapprehensions, Kudlinski pulls no punches: “Some people still think global warming is a myth. Boy, Are They Wrong!” (Science teachers, however, will want to address the unexplained shift from weather to climate.) Serra’s computer and pencil artwork has a retro cartoon vibe, and kids will enjoy watching the TV weatherman promising sunshine in his studio while pedestrians take cover under umbrellas at street level. The takeaway message of our continuing expansion of scientific understanding will land solidly. A timeline and NASA and NOAA website URLs are included. Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois