Science Comics: Volcanoes is a graphic novel by Jon Chad that explains volcanoes in the fashion of a story. This book is set in the future in which the earth has completely frozen over and there are many groups of people, calling themselves tribes, who have to find random human-made things from long ago to burn up to provide heat and energy. However, a young girl named Aurora thinks there must be a better way to help her tribe. One day when they are at the library burning books(after scanning and cataloging them online, of course), Aurora finds a book about volcanoes. She reads it all night and becomes an expert by the morning. She tries to convince her friends and mentor that volcanoes will be the solution to their heating and energy needs, but they won’t listen. She presents them with many facts, like the types of volcanoes, how they form, and a bit about tectonic plates. They don’t believe her, and later she finds out the horrible truth about how the earth ended up like it was. Will Aurora’s idea of their tribe living near a volcano work, or will everyone continue doing what they have been, burning up remnants of a time long past?
I found this book so fascinating because I’ve never known much about volcanoes and their importance. There were many interesting facts presented, and one was that volcanoes can actually have a cooling effect on the atmosphere. I loved how the storyline actually directly contributed to some of the info presented, and provided a sort of dystopia on what could happen if a supermassive volcano erupts violently one day. Because of all this, I give this book a five out of five.