Bound To Stay Bound

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Booklist - 07/01/2014 *Starred Review* This handsome picture book opens with a cutaway view of the earth showing buried fossil fuels (coal, gas, and oil) as glowing bits of “buried sunlight,” while above ground, electric lights illuminate cities, and stars blaze in the night sky. The sun addresses readers, explaining photosynthesis and how a slight imbalance in the cycle of life on earth led to the formation of oxygen in the water and air as well as fossil fuels buried under land and sea. After describing the formation of those fuels over many millions of years, the sun reflects on how the burning of that buried sunlight over a few hundred years has put more carbon dioxide into earth’s atmosphere and, increasingly, warmed its land and seas. Six appended pages offer more detail on the topics presented. As in the Living Sunlight (2009) and Ocean Sunlight (2012), Bang’s expertise and creativity in making picture books are well matched with Chisholm’s solid grasp of science. Every element in the complex, beautiful illustrations supports the informative text, which offers a welcome, long-term perspective on the subject. Combining an amiable voice with unusual breadth of vision, depth of knowledge, and subtlety of presentation, this is a masterful book in a highly original science series. - Copyright 2014 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 07/01/2014 Gr 2–4—The sun narrates this book about the slow creation but relatively quick depletion of fossil fuels, or "buried sunlight." Sounding like a father advising a child, the sun explains that while the Earth has always undergone periods of heating and cooling, those changes happened gradually, giving time for the species inhabiting the planet to adjust. Now humankind is burning—literally—through fossil fuels at such a pace that an extraordinary amount of carbon dioxide has been released within a few hundred years, heating up the atmosphere at a very rapid rate. Unless we find ways to use fossil fuels more discriminately and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide enveloping the earth, the climate will continue to destabilize with increasingly serious consequences. The sun ends by saying, "The choice is yours." While the audience deserves a straightforward discussion of environmental issues, a statement like this, especially when made to children, should be followed by empowering suggestions for action. A concluding section elaborates on points made in the main text, but the solutions listed—solar energy, nuclear energy—are beyond the reach of kids. Other than this criticism, the book is a solid resource of digestible information about our planet's past, present, and future. Bang's beautiful illustrations have a folk-art style and are saturated with deep blues and rich greens. An important, thought-provoking look at the growing environmental crisis.—Alyson Low, Fayetteville Public Library, AR - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 02/01/2015 The latest entry in Bang’s Sunlight Series focuses on the Sun’s role in creating the coal, oil, and natural gas that currently dominate our fuel usage. The body of the text explains the cycle of oxygen and carbon intake and output among living entities, and how the slight accumulation of carbons over millions of years has led to stores of fossil fuels embedded within the Earth-an accumulation humans are now depleting. Bang nuances her explanation carefully to acknowledge the historical vagaries of planetary warming and cooling, and the limits of our certainties concerning our altered environment. She is, however, firm in her admonishments on the need to control fossil fuel usage. The book divides its audience awkwardly, though, with six pages of back matter that amounts, in essence, to a second book aimed at an older readership. In this section Bang reprises the main text in more technical terms and even addresses components of the discussion that were not covered at all, such as the role of geological events in the carbon cycle, the role of geothermal energy, aerobic and anaerobic organisms, and the complexity of feedback loops within the Earth’s energy systems. The main part of the text is illustrated in the series’ signature style of deep blues and texturizing swirls of pin dots and tiny geometric motifs; the additional matter, though, is illustrated only with spot art and could have been much more effectively presented with the diagramming presented for younger readers in the body of the work. Nonetheless, science teachers who have been using this series to supplement their curriculum will be pleased that Bang continues to expand her discussion. No source notes or suggestions for further reading are included. EB - Copyright 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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