How Do Hot Air Balloons Work?

April 1, 2013

K-Gr 2-Though narrow of topic, these introductions combine plenty of big, bright color photos with explanatory texts that, for all their brevity, will give new readers healthy doses of specific information. Hang Gliders, for instance, offers not only a tally of the required gear but also covers techniques for steering, changing speeds, and landing safely. Both the narratives and images feature men and women in roughly equal numbers-and, even more laudably, Space Vehicles highlights a Russian Soyuz and its launch vehicle rather than now-obsolete American spacecraft, though the Hubble Space Telescope does make a cameo. Each volume ends with a labeled diagram, a page of "Fun Facts," and a list of print and Web resources.

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2013
Grades 2-4 How hard is a hot air balloon to understand? It's a balloon, right? It floats upward, right? Au contraire, says this impressively cogent entry into the How Flight Works series. Using playfully arranged text and the big, bright photos that have become trademark to the Lightning Bolt brand, Silverman explains the engines, cords, and vents that make flight possible, as well as how meteorological study compensates for the unnerving fact that balloons cannot be steered. (One page illustrates how hot air balloons float like dandelion seeds on a breezy day.) Info on safety, passenger loads, and balloon storage lead to a final diagram labeling the parts of a passenger balloon and a page of deeper facts, making this an airy, swiftbut still quite informationalpackage.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)