Thunder Underground
by Jane Yolen, Josée Masse (Illustrator)
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A collection of poems explores the wonder underground, from animal burrows and subways to caves and magma.Tags
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This collection of free-style poems takes readers on an expedition underground, exploring everything from animal burrows and human creations, like subways, near the surface—to ancient cities and fossils, lower down—to caves, magma, and Earth’s tectonic plates, deeper still below our feet. At the same time, in Josée Masse’s rich art, a girl and boy, accompanied by several animals, go on a fantastic underground journey. This book contains science, poetry, and an adventure story all rolled into one. But it’s also more than that: In these poems we see that beneath us are the past, present, future—history, truth, and story.
I enjoyed this book because it shows both creativity and intelligence. The book teaches different aspects of science to young readers through poetry, keeping them interested through the rhymes. I would recommend this book to elementary science teachers, although it could easily be used in an english class setting as well. Overall, the picture book includes detailed illustrations, and it covers a variety of academic topics. This is a great read for elementary aged students who love to learn in creative ways.
This is a great poetry book for young readers! It is not hard to read or follow, and the art helps add to the story that the poem is telling. I would say this book could be read in an elementary-age classroom, but the simplicity of the words, and the size of the font. It also can be used to introduce a lesson on poetry and can be used as a guide for students as they start to write their own poems.
This book would be great for intermediate readers. This book is a collection of diverse types of poetry that circle around the theme of things that are underground such as subways, buried treasure, caves, etc. I absolutely loved this book and think that it would be super helpful to provide examples for different types of poetry for intermediate elementary students who are starting to learn what poetry is.
This wasn't my favorite book. Im not the biggest fans of poems but I do think it is a good book to introduce children to poems. I did love the illustrations in the book and the expressions of the characters. I also liked the playfulness and simplistic style of the poems they weren't too hard to understand.
This is an amazing poetry book. It is one of my favorites. This is a collection of 21 poems that follows a boy and a girl. It features many different types of poems. They mainly focus on nature, and each poem shows a different part of nature that is underground.
This book would be a great introduction to poetry or it could be read throughout the year. I could see it being paired with science lessons. I would highly recommend.
This book would be a great introduction to poetry or it could be read throughout the year. I could see it being paired with science lessons. I would highly recommend.
I noticed that the art is very detailed with what the poem/haiku is being written about. Its written like we are going on an adventure with the characters and each location there is a poem that describes the scene.
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Youth: Poetry
124 works; 1 member
Author Information

662+ Works 104,441 Members
Jane Yolen was born February 11, 1939 in New York City. She received a bachelor's degree from Smith College in 1960 and a master's degree in education from the University of Massachusetts in 1976. After college, she became an editor in New York City and wrote during her lunch break. She sold her first children's book, Pirates in Petticoats, at the show more age of 22. Since then, she has written over 300 books for children, young adults, and adults. Her other works include the Emperor and the Kite, Owl Moon, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and The Devil's Arithmetic. She has won numerous awards including the Kerlan Award, the Regina Medal, the Keene State Children's Literature Award, the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, two Christopher Medals, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, the Golden Kite Award, the Jewish Book Award, the World Fantasy Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Association of Jewish Libraries Award. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Awards
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- Members
- 122
- Popularity
- 267,899
- Reviews
- 11
- Rating
- (4.10)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4






















































