Nonfiction Monday: It's Cloudy Today

It’s Cloudy Today
Written by Kristin Sterling
Picture Book, Ages 4-8
Lerner Publications Company
Lightning Bolt Books, 2010
Reviewed by Kim Hutmacher
Bio by Laura Crawford
Book Source: We would like to thank Lerner Publications Company for donating a copy of this book for review.

One of my favorite things to do is cloud watch from a grassy patch in my backyard. I love to watch them move and take on different shapes. I’ve seen clouds in the shapes of tulips, rabbits, castles and marshmallows. Each shape has its own story. Feathery, wispy cirrus clouds tell a story of lovely weather to come. Dark low hanging stratus clouds tell the story of a storm. This book describes and defines individual clouds. Readers learn about the people who study clouds- meteorologists. We also learn about the man who named the clouds and the origins of each name. There are bright vivid photographs, which seem to be a constant with Lerner’s Lightning Bolt Series books. When readers are finished with this book, they should easily be able to go outside and know what kind of clouds are painting the sky. If that weren’t enough, the back matter even includes a fun shaving cream cloud activity!

This book is part of Lerner’s What’s the Weather Like? series. Other titles in this series include:

It’s Rainy Today
It’s Snowy Today
It’s Sunny Today
It’s Windy Today

Kristin Sterling is a busy woman! Not only is she an accomplished Lerner author with 27 published books, she is also a Title I teacher in Minnesota where she conducts intervention groups for both reading and math. As an employee of Lerner for six years, her jobs included staff writer and curriculum developer. She now writes on a freelance basis. Her Lerner titles include biographies, books about simple math concepts and basic social studies topics.

This book is part of the Nonfiction Monday Round-Up hosted this week by In Need of Chocolate blog.