title: Volcanoes: Mountains That Blow Their Tops (Penguin Young Readers, Level 3)
author:  Nicholas Nirgiotis 
description: Grade 1-3?Brief facts about volcanoes, presented in simple language. The narrative has a too-familiar tone and the author uses many exclamation points. An anecdote is told in the present tense: "The mountain blows its top!...Just two people get away. One is a girl. She knows a cave. She used to play there." Then readers are told, "This is a true story. It happened in 1902." Nirgiotis switches to the past tense for the more factual remainder of the book. The writing is awkward and confusing. Some volcanoes are mentioned by name, but while the story of the eruption of Paricutin in Mexico is told, its name and date are not mentioned. Brightly colored, inviting cut-paper illustrations magnify and clarify the text. Depictions of the different stages of Paricutin and before-and-after pictures of the eruption of Mount St. Helens create interest. However, the quality of the pictures does not make up for the inconsistencies in the text. A better title on Paricutin for this age group is Thomas P. Lewis's Hill of Fire (1971). Franklyn Branley's Volcanoes (1986, both HarperCollins) provides better factual coverage for a slightly older audience.?Anne Parker, Milton Public Library, MA<br />Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  # The Black Dog
  
  
  ## by W. H. C. Pynchon
  
  
  ![Muted Posthorn](../images/MutedPosthorn.png)
  
  
  ### *
  
  
  “And if a man shall meet the Black Dog once it shall be for joy; and if twice,
  it shall be for sorrow; and the third time he shall die.”
  
  
  ### *
  
  
  In a corner of our country not far removed from two of its great cities, there
  is a low range of mountains, the hoary evidences of ancient volcanic action.
  Countless years have elapsed since the great tide of molten lava rolled over
  the region. Years fewer, but still countless, have passed during which the
  shattered and tilted remnants of the lava sheets have watched over the land.
  Deep gorges divide the masses into separate mountains, lonely and desolate,
  and the most desolate and the most conspicuous of all is the West Peak.
  
  
  
  
  
  The West Peak stands at an angle of the range. Though it is not very high by
  measurement, yet, by its wild and savage aspect, it makes a stronger
  impression on the traveler than many mountains of much