Eruption

eric55 - The book I am reviewing is Storm Runners: Eruption by Roland Smith. It is the third book in the series and it's about a boy named Chase Masters whose dad got struck by lightning repairing something on the roof of their house. After that, his father became incredibly interested in natural disasters and sold everything they owned including their house and became a storm chaser. In this book, after surviving the many bad disasters in the previous books, they head off to Mexico where a volcano is about to erupt. I would rate this book a three out of five stars. I gave it this rating because it is a simple storyline and it is a fast read. I feel in some parts that the author, Roland Smith, could have done a little better job in creating the scenes and making them more interesting. Storm Runners is realistic fiction because of what they do and use to track and survive storms. Storm chasers really exist and they use a lot of the equipment described in the book. I would recommend this book to people in 4th through 7th grade because it is a fairly easy read and not very hard to pick up. You could have read this book even though it is the third book of the series and still understand what is going on. An internal conflict in this book is when Chase has to go through seeing all of the horrible things he sees throughout the book. An external conflict in this book is when everyone has to try and survive the danger of being storm chasers. Especially when they are on an erupting volcano.

January 15, 2012
The third and concluding volume in Smith's breakneck Storm Runners trilogy shifts the scene from a circus' devastated winter quarters in hurricane-wracked Florida to the ominously active Mexican volcano Popocatepetl. As in the previous episode, Surge (2011), the action picks up with minimal recapping. Hardly has Hurricane Emily blown through than worrisome news that all contact has been lost with the Rossi Brothers' Circus, on tour near Mexico City, in the wake of a major earthquake. This sends a crew headed by catastrophe experts Chase and his father John to the rescue. Smith immediately scatters his party over Popocatepetl's shaking, landslide ridden slopes amid clouds of ash to discover human corpses, dead elephants and big cats, desperados, trapped refugees, dozens of badly injured villagers and (just to crank the suspense up another notch) an escaped tiger. Though the SEAL airlift that John eventually calls up to get everyone out of their various pickles is unalloyed deus-ex-machina (and can you say "international incident?"), at least it provides a tidy getaway to go with the resolution of several personal side plots. A wild, roller coaster ride despite the credibility-stretching ending. (Adventure. 11-13)

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March 15, 2012
Grades 5-8 In the latest installment in the Storm Runners series, Chase and his father are off to Mexico to find the missing Rossi Family Circus. Trouble is waiting for them, however, as they end up near a rumbling volcano. Smith sticks with the formula that he used in the first two books, but he gives the survival story an extra dose of octane with some escaped wild animalsin this case, a tiger that nearly devours Chase. In the end, many mysteries remain, and fans will hope for more adventures to come.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)